Alternative Story to Infinity War and Endgame
by HieiYYH
Summary: If different characters survived the snap and the ending played out differently this is how infinity war and endgame could have gone since I didn't like how some characters died. Hope you enjoy.
1. Loki Survives

"If you give me the space stone I'll let both of you live," Thanos bargained as he held Thor by the throat and stared Loki down. When Loki remained stoic, he took the power stone in his hand and started running it along Thor's head, making him scream out in pain.

"Stop!" Loki begged, "You can have it." He showed him the tesseract in his hands.

Thanos dropped Thor and took it from him, then crushed it into his gauntlet. "You really are the worst brother," Thor said as he looked up at Loki from the ground.

Thanos said, "I said you two would get to live, but I didn't say for how much longer." With the power stone he easily crumbled and disintigrated the spaceship they were in. Thanos and his children made it onto his own ship and left the area in a haste as the ship Thor and Loki was in went to pieces around them.

Just before he passed out, Heimdall said, "May the allfather's power and all of the dark energy flow through me one last time." He shot a light through the broken ship and Hulk disappeared through the beam with Heimdall's dying breath as he succumbed to his injuries.

"I hate you," Thor said to Loki.

"Why?" he asked before a blast from the breaking ship hit them both, knocking them out as they floated into space.

* * *

Thor woke up hastily and caught his breath. He got off of the table he was laying on and noticed he was surrounded by several people, the guardians of the galaxy, all of a sudden inside of another spaceship. "Is Loki in here yet?" he asked.

"Who is that?" Peter asked, "Who are you? What are you doing out in space? How did you survive out there? How long were you out there? We have a lot of questions to ask you! Hey, wait a minute!"

Thor reopened the door without warning, and grabbed a tether. He went back out into the debri to see Loki floating in the distance, still unconcious. He dragged him in and they closed the door behind him again.

Rocket said, "I don't know what to tell you. He looks pretty dead."

"Wake up!" Thor demanded, and bitch slapped Loki across the face.

Loki screamed and sat up, pushing Thor away. "You didn't have to do that," he said angrily as he stood up and faced the guardians.

Drax asked, "He's alive?"

Mantis asked, "How did you two survive being in space?"

Thor explained, "First of all, we're Asgardians..." he glanced at Loki, "sort of...I am Thor, God of thunder and this is Loki, God of being annoying and YOU GAVE THANOS THE SPACE STONE! YOU HAVE TO REALIZE YOU'VE KILLED US ALL! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT!" He threw Loki against the wall of the ship.

"No," Loki said, "I didn't." He pulled it out of his long coat. "I gave him a spell version that'll last about an hour and then however long I can concentrate on it. You didn't have to hit me."

Thor said, "So now you're saying we have an hour until Thanos wants to kill us both. Wonderful." He let him go.

"I'm sorry to interupt your little chat except I'm not," Peter said, "what are you talking about? How do you know Thanos?"

Loki replied, "He's a very large periwinkle man, that makes him very hard to miss."

"Periwinkle?" Peter asked as he stared at everyone else in confusion. Gamora shook her head disapprovingly at him.

Thor asked, "You know of Thanos as well?"

"Gamora's his step daughter," Peter said sheepishly.

"He nearly killed us," Thor said angrily as he approached her carefully, "and he slaughted half of what was left of Asgard."

"She hates him as much as we do," he continued, "probably even more, to be honest."

Thor put his hand on her shoulder knowingly and said, "Families can be hard. That's my brother over there and a second ago I was sure he killed us all but now I have to work with him to make sure that doesn't happen." He pointed to Loki who waved at them all, smiling.

Gamora asked, "Did Thanos tell you where he was going?"

"No," Loki answered.

"We're going to Nidavellir," Thor said, "at least I am." He started collecting some things into a bag.

"That's not a word," Drax said.

"Nidavellir," Rocket said, impressed, "they've made the most amazing and destructive weapons in all of the galaxy for centuries! I want to see it in action!"

"The rabbit is correct," Thor said.

"Rabbit?" he asked.

Loki corrected, "Thor, he's a raccoon. Maybe if you read a book every once in a while you'd know that."

"He's a what?" Thor asked.

"You know, brother," Loki explained, "they're not as strong as a badger, not as smart as a fox, and they live off of midgardian garbage." He stared Rocket down.

"Ah," Thor said, "a trash panda. I've heard of that one, yes. The trash panda is correct and he is clearly the smartest among you. I need a new weapon since my insane older halfsister broke my old one."

Rocket said, "You really are the God of being annoying."

"God of Mischief," Loki corrected, "actually."

Gamora said, annoyed at their antics, "We need to find Thanos and stop him and in order to do that we need to know where he's going."

"Well mind and time stones are on Earth being protected by the avengers," Thor explained as he continued to get ready to leave, "and Thanos thinks he has the space stone which is on Loki right now. No one knows where the soul stone is so he definitely can't be going after that one. Wherever the reality stone is right now, he's probably going after that one."

"Knowhere," Mantis said anxiously.

"Whatever," Thor replied, "I'm headed to Nidavellir to get a new weapon so I can kill him. I'm going to need your escape pod in order to do that."

Peter Quill said angrily, "No, you're not taking our pod! This is my ship!"

"Oh," Loki said coyly, "and how do you plan on stopping us?"

"How do you plan on taking it against my will?" Peter Quill demanded, "There are 5 of us on my side and only 2 of you."

"Quill there's 6 of us together," Rocket corrected.

Drax burst out laughing and said, "You don't know how to count! There are 6 of us in here, see!" Mantis giggled alongside him.

"I didn't count Groot!" Peter Quill shouted, "He's not going to fight anyone for us, look at him!" He gestured to teenage Groot sitting and still playing video games, not paying any attention as to what was happening around him.

Loki asked, "You really want to try and stop us."

"Loki," Thor said, not even bothering to step in and stop him.

"Yeah, I do!" Peter Quill replied. As he stepped forward, the real Loki used his the hilt of his dagger and bashed him in the back of the head. His illusion disappeared and he turned to face the other guardians.

Drax stared and said, "How-when-what? How did you do that? Are you made of magic?" He made wild gestures as everyone stared at the two of them.

"Let's go," Thor said as he moved toward the pod, "we need to move out before Thanos realizes he has a fake stone."

Rocket said, "I want to see this weapon you're getting! Can I have one?"

"No," Thor said, "you have to worthy. Even if you managed to lift it, it would drive you into madness before you even realized what was happening." He opened the pod door with Loki right behind him.

"Is it bad I want one even more now?" Rocket asked as he followed them.

"I'd say so," Loki said.

"Rocket we need you!" Gamora said, "You can't leave us!"

"Watch me," he replied, "come on Groot. We're leaving the morons behind."

"I am Groot," he said as he stood up, still playing his video game, and went into the escape pod with him.

Loki asked Thor, "Can I drive this time?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you've annoyed me enough today and you have to concentrate on your spell eventually," Thor said, "goodbye and good luck, morons."

As he closed the door, Loki said, "You know what 'moron' means, Thor. You're not that stupid."

"I know, Loki," he answered as he took off, "that was the whole point. They're going to get themselves killed on Knowhere for no reason while we're doing what's smart and getting a Thanos killing weapon. That is the definition of the word moron, don't you think?"

* * *

On the way toward Nidavellir, Rocket asked, "Why do you only have one eye?"

"My older half sister took it from me," Thor explained, "she also broke my hammer, which is why I'm thinking of getting an axe this time. It's the whole reason we're here."

"Yeah that's freaking me out," Rocket said, "I have another one you can use. I stole it off of a guy on Contraxia."

Loki looked at him in disgust as he asked, "Where have you been keeping that?" He watched as Rocket handed the eyeball to Thor.

He said, "You should probably wash it first. And what about you, mister annoying, what happens if Thanos figures out the infinity stone you gave him was fake? What are you going to do then?"

"Run like hell," Loki replied, "and don't look back."

Rocket said sarcastically, "That sounds like a great idea."

"I am Groot," he said.

"Yes," Loki said, "we are here. It sure took long enough."

"You understand Groot?" Rocket asked.

"I know every language," Loki replied, "and I speak Alltounges so everyone understands me as well."

As Thor fiddled with his new eye some more, he said, "Of course we understand Groot. Why wouldn't we? Hey trash panda, I don't think this eye you gave me works, everything is still so dark."

"Thor," Loki said nervously, "Nidavellir is dead."

They looked onward at the now dark star with it's rings completely still. Instead of the countless dwarfs they were used to seeing moving around the entire star, they could only see one, Eitri, the king of the dwarfs.

Thor said, "Don't say that, Loki."

"Well it doesn't look very alive if you ask me," he said.

"I hate to agree with him," Rocket said, "but he looks pretty close to being right. I mean, look at this place. There's no one here!"

* * *

"Eitri," Thor said as they walked up to him as a group, "what happened here?"

"This was all from Thanos," he answered, "he came, he slaughtered, and then he left. He only left me alive so I'd make him his gauntlet and his sword, then he cut off my hands so I'd never be able to make another weapon again." He showed them his arms.

Thor said, "There has to be a way to restart the star. I need an axe."

Eitri explained, "The eye has to be open all the way in order for the star to melt enough metal for an axe. Someone would have to stand in it since it's broken and that's suicide."

"No one could survive that," Loki said.

"Again," Rocket said, "he's right, Thor. Honestly I hate the God of annoyance here but I'm going to have to agree with him. It looks like you're not getting a new weapon."

"How long does it take to melt the metal?" Thor asked as he looked up at the eye in determination.

Eitri said, "A few minutes."

"One of us can hold open the eye so it melt the metal in time," he said.

"Do you know what you're saying?" Loki demanded, "No one of us can't! I'm from a race of ice people, Thor, I'm a _frost giant,_ the heat will incinerate me and it'll kill you too. You're not invincible!"

Thor said nervously as he walked away, "It'll only kill me if I die."

Eitri said, "Yes, that's...what..._killing you _means."

"Trash panda," Thor comanded, "get in the pod and grab a rope." He gestured for him to follow as he walked away.

Rocket asked, "What's the pod and a rope going to do? We're in space! Hey! You're going to get yourself killed!"


	2. The Snappening

After Thor survived fire from the star and Groot made a handle for him to use the axe, the four of them headed to Earth with the tesseract in order to fight in Wakanda against Thanos' armies. In an electrifying blast, Thor brought lightning to the ground and killed hundreds of alien dogs in one swift movement of his new axe.

"Loki," he commanded, "bring me Thanos!"

He asked, "What am I now, your personal errand runner?"

Thor rolled his eyes at him and explained, "You know he's after _you_! Find him before he finds you so I can kill him! Go and be a hero for just one time in your life!" He charged into battle toward the alien dogs.

"Thor!" Steve said angrily, "You brought Loki here?" He stared at them in disbelief.

"It's complicated," Thor replied, "Loki, just-"

"I know, I know," he said, unamused, "_find Thanos so you can kill him and save the whole universe_. I heard you the first time, dear brother." He walked away from the battle nonchalantly.

It didn't take too long before Thanos did arrive in Wakanda with his spaceship, off to the side of everyone else in the forest hunting for Vision and his mind stone. After he stole that, he used the Reality Stone to grab Loki from where he was standing and lifted him off of the ground.

"Found him!" he shouted, "Thor he's-" He was pulled through the air, passing trees and people left and right, and his neck landed directly into Thanos' open right hand and he slammed him against the ground.

"No tricks this time," Thanos said angrily, "you have something I need."

"Do I," Loki said pityfully as he struggled to breathe, "I had no idea."

Without touching Loki, Thanos lifted the tesseract from Loki's coat and made it float into his hand. As soon as he touched it with his glove it burned through it and left Thanos screaming in pain. He dropped Loki unceremoniously to the ground as the tesseract fell beside him. "What did you do!" Thanos demanded angrily as he stood over him.

Loki caught his breath and explained, "I put a spell on it. No one else can touch the space stone."

"I'll kill you for that!" Thanos prepared to stomp on his chest.

"A dead man's spell is unbreakable," Loki explained, trying to stop his boot, "And you can't perform the snap without the final stone. You will never be a God."

Thanos kicked him hard and examined his glove angrily. "I don't have to make my fingers snap to make the universe suffer." He took the power stone out of his glove with his right hand and prepared to slam it into the ground.

"No!" Loki shouted, knowing as soon as the power stone would hit the ground with his force behind it, it would incinerate the planet as a whole. He reached out knowing that he had to stall Thanos even for a moment in order to stop the death toll from rising because of Thanos.

He grabbed the power stone in his hand and stole it from Thanos' fingers. As Loki pulled away he expected for it to burn and he'd be killed instantly. He froze when he realized that wasn't happening. "You're not dying a slow and painful death from the power stone's energy," Thanos said, completely shocked, "impossible."

Completely surprised he wasn't dying, Loki stared at the power stone in his left hand in completely shock. "I agree," he whispered.

Thanos saw the tesseract on the ground and stomped on it. Because Loki was no longer concentrating on the spell, it was broken, and Thanos easily lifted it off of the ground and placed it into his glove. He swiftly grabbed Loki by the neck once more and choked him out. Loki tried to keep the power stone his hand but the longer he didn't breathe, the harder it was. Eventually Thanos took it from his hands and added it to his gauntlet, making his collection complete.

Before he could snap his fingers, Thor's axe flew through the air, generating lightning as it went. Thanos threw Loki to the ground and tried using the stones to stop it's power. It continued on it's path and lead directly to Thanos' chest, purple blood sprayed in every direction, including down the left half of Loki's face and body as he tried to turn away.

Thor flew in from behind it and said, "I knew I would get the chance to kill you." He pushed the axe further into his chest as Loki scambled to his feet.

"You had to do that while he was leaning over me," Loki said as he tried to wipe away the blood, to no avail.

Thanos said, "You should have gone for the head."

"What?" Loki asked.

"No!" Thor shouted at Thanos snapped his fingers and then disappeared into a portal, leaving the axe behind.

"You couldn't cut his hand off first?!" Loki yelled at him, "Or his whole left arm, or did what he said to do-gone for the head in the first place, Thor! You killed half the universe because of your _little_ oversight!"

"Shut up," Thor demanded.

Steve asked, "What happened? Where'd he go?"

As Rhodey flew in and landed beside him, he felt himself turning numb. "What in the-" he started, then began to discintigrate in the suit. When he disappeared, the metal suit fell over being the empty husk it now was.

"Steve," Bucky said nervously, "what's happening?" Natasha, Steve, Sam, and him looked around to see if anyone else had noticed people in the distance disappearing before their eyes.

Thor looked down at himself and saw himself starting to turn to dust. "Loki," he demanded, "what are you doing?" He grabbed Loki so he couldn't run away.

"I'm not doing anything," he said nervously as he clutched onto him, "this isn't me!"

"Loki!" Thor shouted at him just before he turned to ash completely.

Steve asked shakily, "How did that happen?"

"It's Thanos," Loki said sadly as he hugged himself where Thor just was, "he won."

* * *

The next day, after a horrible night sleep from everyone who was left, Bucky, Natasha, Steve, Loki, Sam, and Bruce, were at the Avengers headquartes in upstate New York. Natasha sat at the kitchen table and leaned her body over it, face down.

Bucky grabbed a plum out of the fruit basket on the counter and asked, "Did you go to bed last night or did you stay in that spot the whole time?"

She sat up, eyes glazed over and puffy from crying and her hair was in a mess over her face. "I haven't moved," she said slowly, "I couldn't sleep knowing that Clint and so many other people are gone so I stayed here and cried the entire night. Pretty pathetic, huh." She fixed her hair away from her face.

Bucky pulled up a chair, only to notice the table had a huge crack down the middle. He said, "It's not pathetic. I've been there before myself, once I remembered how many lives I destroyed for Hydra, I couldn't sleep for days."

"What about right now?" she asked, "You look like you're handling this a little too well."

He bit into the purple plum and explained, "All things considered, this isn't too abnormal for me. I mean, I've never seen anyone disintegrate before, but the fact that I now have to adjust to a whole new reality or else I'll suffer, that has been my life for the last seventy five-ish years. If anything, this is _better_ since I'm not getting electrocuted nor am I being forced to murder anyone." He took another bite into the plum.

"I get what you're saying," she said, esasperated, "honestly, I do, 100%, despite my tone of voice, but if you say that to anyone else besides me they will think you're a psychopath so don't say that ever again."

"Understood," he said awkwardly.

Steve walked in from behind Natasha and him and said, "People all over the world are freaking out and I don't know how to help them. Someone here better have something positive to say or I'm going to lose it."

Bucky said nervously, "Fruit is still good." He motioned to the fruit basket in front of him but Steve's face was unwavering in disappointment.

Sam walked into the room from the other side, obviously tired, looked at them, and asked, "What happened to the table?"

"I was going to ask that," Bucky said, looking at Natasha.

"Loki's upset," she said, "apparently he has powers where he can move things with his mind and when he's upset he breaks things uncontrollably."

"Awesome," Sam said sarcastically.

Steve lowered his head and asked, "Did he break anything else?"

"The refrigerator," she said, "and the oven, but the stove is fine last time I checked and the hallway walls leading downstairs are also all cracked. I think he's down there, sulking in his own misery and feeling of failure."

Sam asked, "How do you break an oven but not a-you know what-nevermind, I shouldn't even ask." He walked over to the fridge and saw that it was cracked wide open to the point where water was running onto the floor and the shelves were all broken. Food spilled out toward him onto his feet. "Now that's just great," he said sarcastically.

"So," Bruce said awkwardly as he walked into the kitchen, "what's the plan today?"

Natasha answered, "I think we should try to find Thanos."

"Right," Sam said, "because that worked so well yesterday when we tried to track him down with nothing to go on." He slammed a cabinent door shut.

"We're all on edge here," Steve said, then glanced at Bucky who looked fine, and continued, "all of us are upset. Let's try not to get on each other's last nerves."

As Sam pulled out a brand new full gallon of milk out of the broken fridge, Loki came out from the hallway. He was still half covered in Thanos' blood, but was wearing light colored clothing instead of his usual black, green, and gold leather.

Sam asked as tactfully as he could, "You're not going to uh...clean the blood off...there?" Loki twitched and the gallon of milk Sam was holding broke, spilling milk all over himself and the floor. "Ah come on man, that was a new jug," he said halfheartedly.

"There's a spaceship heading towards us," Loki said.

Natasha asked, "Do you have powers that sense that too?"

"No," he said, "I looked out the window and saw an ugly orange ship heading straight for us."

Bruce said, "That can't be good." He was the first to head out the front door with everyone else right behind him.

* * *

Outside, a disheveled Tony awkwardly walked off of the platform with Nebula and Mantis walking in behind him. When they stopped at the top of the ramp, Mantis lost her balance and Nebula grabbed her and straightened her out without changing the expression on her face. Mantis smiled and nodded at her gratefully.

"Tony," Bruce said, "we were worried we lost you." He helped him off of the craft alongside Steve.

"I lost the kid," he said sadly, "and that strange wizard person and the weird people that we met the guardians of the something-they're all gone but those two. The blue one is Nebula, the one with antenna's on her head is Mantis, at least they're alive or else I probably would have starved to death on Titan before managing to fix a ship to get back here." He motioned at them to come down.

Steve said, "A lot of people are gone, Tony."

"You!" he pointed at Loki, "What are you doing!? Are you here to gloat!? To rub it in our faces that we lost!? What are you covered in, face paint? What are you wearing?" He stumbled forward as Bruce and Steve held him up.

Bruce said, "Now wait, Thor's gone too and that is his brother so-"

"This is what I get to live for now," Loki said shakily, "to be harrassed by midgardians." The glass in the windows next to them cracked violently.

Steve said, "Why don't we go inside and try to relax?"

* * *

Everyone awkwardly sat or stood around the kitchen table as Tony got an IV for hydration and nutrients.

Bruce explained, "The news says pretty much every town and city is looking for anyone and everyone who can help with the clean up effort. There were hundreds of car accidents after this happened and we don't even know what else yet."

"We haven't taken a census at this point," Natasha said, "_obviously_, but from the looks of things he really did take out half of all life. I think Thanos is still alive out there, somewhere, but we have no idea where he could be."

"Tony," Steve said, "you fought him in outer space. Did he mention where he is now?"

"That's wrong," Tony said angrily, "actually, I didn't fight him. He threw a moon at me and then a wizard gave him an infinity stone and then he was gone and so was everyone else. He didn't leave any clues or hints as to where he was going either." He looked over and saw Bucky. "You have to be kidding me. You get to live alongside us?" he asked hastily as he stood up.

Steve took a breath as he stood between them and said, "This isn't the time Tony, we're in this fight together."

Tony tried to get closer to Bucky as he shouted, "Together! Yeah right! Where were you in New York when aliens showed up again! Nowhere to be found meanwhile Thanos lets an assasin like you stay alive! A murderer gets to live among us who are so lucky to have survived his little finger snap! Meanwhile little old Peter Parker who's a superhero for Queens and only wants to do good for the city and the world as a whole-he has to die! He was just a kid never mind a 100 year old serial murderer gets to live! That makes all things are equal and fair and just in the world! Don't you think!?"

He tried to push Bucky, but Bucky held Tony's shoulder carefully with his metal arm, keeping him an arm's distance away. "Tony," he said calmly as he made Steve step to the side.

"Don't say my name," he said angrily, "don't pretend like we're friends! Peter should be the one alive right now, not you! If you want to fight me and kill me like you killed my mother who also never did anything wrong, go ahead! Here, I'll give you a head start." He ripped out the light in his chest and handed it to Bucky. He passed out before he could say anything else and Bucky caught him and carried him bridal carry style.

Bucky asked, "Where should I put him?"

"Come on," Bruce said, "there's a bed in here."


	3. Bye Thanos

After Tony was put back together and placed in a bed, Bruce walked back out to the living room where everyone was and said, "He's sedated. It'll be hours before he wakes up again."

"And now what are we going to do?" Sam asked, "We still don't have a game plan."

Steve said, "Our plan is finding Thanos. Does anyone here now know where he is?"

"I do," Nebula answered.

Natasha asked hesitatantly, "Why?"

Loki explained, "She's his daughter, she would know what his plans were."

"I hope this doesn't offend you or anything," Sam said calmly, "but we need to know, how can we trust you? How do we know you're not on his side and leading us into a trap?" He looked at everyone who mostly agreed with him while Loki lowered his glance to the ground.

"Sam," Steve said causiously.

"He killed half of everyone on my planet when I was a baby," she explained, "and then he kidnapped me. I was tortured and enslaved my entire life and forced to fight and kill others. Say my name on any planet and they'll know who I used to work for. I am not on his side anymore. I do not want him to win."

Bucky muttered under his breath, "So aliens do that kind thing too."

Steve patted Bucky's shoulder and said, "I understand. That means we all want the same thing. We can fight Thanos together."

Loki demanded, "Where is he?"

"At 'the garden,'" she explained, "he always explained to me that after he did the snap we'd go there together and live on a peaceful farm juxtposed against a grateful universe. _Asshole_."

Sam said, "No! No, we can't let him live that peacefully or whatever after everything he did. There's no way!"

Loki's clothing changed to his dramatic black, green, and gold leather with his horns and the scepter for ruling Asgard in his hand. He was still covered in Thanos' blood but he was more determinded than ever. "I won't let him live," he said coldly.

* * *

Bucky, Sam, Natasha, Loki, Mantis, and Nebula went into the spaceship. Bruce elected to stay behind in order to look after Tony.

"Finally," Loki said as he sat in the driver's seat of the ship, "I get to fly." He took off from Earth and guided the ship to the nearest jump point.

Nebula looked over at Bucky and saw his metal arm. She said, "I've never been to Earth before. What's it like here?"

"I'm not the right person to ask," he answered.

"What happened to your arm?" she asked.

"It got ripped off when I fell out of a moving train," he explained, "then I was kidnapped and torchered and enslaved. I was forced to murder people against my will for the last 70 years so I understand where you're coming from."

She nodded and asked, "How long do the people on this planet live?"

"Around 80 years if we're lucky," he answered.

"I see your problem," she said and smiled weakly at him, "you look very young for being an old man."

"I'm technically only in my 30's," he said, "but thanks anyway."

As they appeared before Thanos' planet after going through the jump point, they stared in awe of the expanse of space around them.

Sam asked, "What are going to do, just knock on his front door and attack?"

"We should check for any defenses first and figure out a way around them if there are any," Loki said.

"And how are we going to do that?" Steve asked, "Can anyone here survive outer space?"

Loki sighed and replied, "I guess I have to do everything. I'll just astral project myself down there and see what he's up to first. Even if he sees me he won't be attacking a real person." He sat still and closed his eyes and started walking around on the surface of Thanos' planet. When he returned he explained, "There's nothing down there. It's only him. I don't even see the stones."

* * *

On the ground, they inspected Thanos's farm. "This only makes me hate him more," Sam said.

When they approached his house, Loki tore it apart with his powers from a distance and made it fly into pieces around everyone, including Thanos.

"I thought you'd come for me sooner or later," Thanos said as he clamly sat down on the only piece of furniture that was left untouched.

Natasha demanded, "Where are the stones?"

"I used the stones to destroy the stones," he explained, "it was the only way to ensure perfect balance in the universe."

Sam said, "I don't believe you."

Steve asked, "How do we know you're not lying?"

"He has to be," Sam said.

"No," Nebula explained, "my father is many things but a liar is not among his attributes."

Thanos looked over at her and said, "My dearest Nebula, maybe I was too hard on you for all these years." She began visibly shaking.

"You're wrong about ensuring balance in the universe," Loki said, "this is the only way." He leveled his staff but Thanos moved out of the way as he swung it across his neck. Instead, Loki showed up from behind him and cut of his head with one of his knives when he wasn't looking as his illusion disappeared. "Made you look," he whispered as a beheaded Thanos died.

Bucky stared at him and then looked at everyone else, stopping at Sam, and asked, "How'd he...?"

"You think I know what just happened?" Sam asked.

"It's one of his powers," Natasha said nonchalantly.

Sam asked, "Now what are we going to do? We can't bring everyone back if all of the stones are destroyed."

Mantis said nervously, "That can't be right. We have to be able to do something."

Nebula asked, "Does this mean everyone is gone forever?"

"We can't give up," Steve said, not believing a word of it, "we can't. We're the avengers."

"Steve," Natasha said, choking up, "it looks like we really did lose this one."

* * *

Back on Earth, everyone had trouble bracing themselves with the disappointment of loss. Loki landed the spaceship in front of the avengers headquarters with a death grip on the steering column. He stared into space with the most horrendous look of fear and horror, unmoving, and unblinking.

"Loki," Steve said concerned as everyone stood up to leave, "are you alright?"

"He looks catatonic," Natasha said nervously.

Mantis said, "He wants to be alone."

Steve said as he left, "You're welcome inside whenever you're ready, no matter what Tony says or does."

Everyone walked slowly toward the building, unable to look up from the ground. "Careful of the door," Natasha said as she gestured to the still broken window next to it.

The last one to come inside, Steve, didn't pay attention and when he shut the door it cracked even more. "Sorry," he said.

Bruce asked optimistically from the top of the stairs, "How did things go?" He saw everyone's faces and added, "That bad, huh. Where's Loki?"

Steve explained, "He's outside, still in shock. Is Tony still out cold?" Bruce nodded.

Sam pitifully walked up the stairs alongside Steve while Mantis, Bucky, Natasha, and Nebula stayed downstairs.

Mantis whispered, "Without even touching any of you I can tell you're all in agony."

"What do you mean?" Bucky asked.

Nebula explained nonchalantly, "She's some sort of cosmic empathetic insect that was raised by a homicidal planet her entire life." Mantis nodded happily at Natasha's and Bucky's confused faces.

Natasha said, "Please tell me you just strung a bunch of random words together to mess with us. _Please_."

"No," Mantis said, "she speaks the truth. When I touch people I can feel their emotions and I can help them feel better temporarily." She gestured to some chairs in the sitting area behind herself and said, "Should we sit?"

"Why not?" Nebula said as she sat down in a chair and stretched her legs out straight.

Natasha and Bucky awkwardly sat in seats in a circle around her as Mantis walked around the room.

Bucky asked, "Why are we doing this?"

"I don't want to be alone right now," Natasha said shakily, obviously on the verge of tears, "Clint saved my life several years ago, _literally_, and now him and everyone else is gone and I don't know what to do." She rubbed her temples. "I've never felt this strong of emotion before," she confessed.

When Mantis touched her, she said, "You're feeling grief and shame for losing against Thanos."

"We're all there right now, Natasha," Bucky said, "have you ever lost someone before?"

"Before the avengers I had nothing," she replied, "no one was ever close to me. I was trained to keep everyone at a distance. The avengers became my family and now it feels like they're gone."

Nebula said, "We survived. You're not alone."

"Thank you," she whispered, still desperately trying to hold herself together.

Mantis tried to touch Nebula but she pulled away. "I'm completely fine," she said, then her body shook and she couldn't look Bucky or Natasha in the eyes.

"As a professional liar," Natasha said, "I know you're not telling the truth."

Mantis shrugged at Nebula. She finally conceded to being touched by holding her right arm up. "Hatred."

"Yes," Nebula said, "I hate my father."

"No," she said calmly, "you hate yourself for not being able to hate him."

Nebula pulled herself away agressively and stared her down. Mantis moved away from her nervously and hid behind Bucky. He said calmly, "You don't have to hate him."

"I should," Nebula explained, "look at the destruction he caused to everyone and everything. Everyone in the universe is suffering because him. Look at what he did to me!" He pointed at her metal parts. "I wasn't always like this."

Natasha asked, "Do you wish you could go back to the way you were before you were part metal?" She glanced at Bucky who gave her a half smile.

"I don't remember a time that I was," she confessed, "what about you?" She nodded to Bucky.

"I remember," he said, "but I'm not that person anymore." He sat up straighter and Mantis took his right hand.

She explained, "You're lost and are trying to find a new version of yourself. You also don't like it when people touch your hands." Bucky wiped his hand on his thigh agressively after she let go of him.

Nebula asked, "What are you feeling, Mantis?"

"Sad," she confessed as she looked down, "everyone who was ever nice to me is now dead."

"Everyone here will be nice to you," Natasha said, "I promise. If they're not, they have to deal with me."

Bucky asked Nebula, "How did Thanos get you metal body parts?"

"He'd make me fight my siblings," she explained, "and whenever one of us would lose we'd get 'enhanced' to help us win the next time-at least that's what he always told me. I almost never won, especially against Gamora, my favorite sister."

"Do you want to learn how to win a fight?" Bucky asked.

Excited, Nebula raised her head, then glanced at Natasha who smiled at her. "You should take him up on that," she said, "I know you don't know who I am but you should believe me when I say he had my running for my life. Remember?" She smiled at him.

"If you didn't shoot me in the face you wouldn't have had to worry about me," Bucky replied.

Natasha said, "That was payback for shooting me in the stomach." She lifted her shirt to show his scar.

He shook his head and explained, "No I shot you in the collar bone, right here. I remember." He pointed to his left side between his shoulder and neck.

She replied, "Yeah that was later. You shot me in the stomach in 2007. Remember?"

His eyes went wide. "What?" he said, "No...I did?" He started to remember the year and shoot out a truck's tires, then seeing a woman hanging off of cliff. It all came back to him. "Oh," he said awkwardly, "sorry about that. You know if you didn't shoot my in the face you wouldn't have had to worry about me. You weren't my target that day."

"Awe," Natasha said sincerely, "you left your target to try and kill me? That so sweet. I'm flattered."

Bucky shook his head and said, "That's not flattering. If I was a few more inches to the right and up I would have shot your head and you'd be dead right now."

"I couldn't let you murder Steve," she said, "Aren't you glad I didn't let you do that?" She smiled wider, showing her teeth.

Nebula asked, "If you two fought, who would win?"

"I would," Bucky said.

"Yeah," Natasha said, shaking her head, "he would. He did."

Bucky added, "Twice." She glared at him and he shrugged and smiled innocently.

"I accept your offer," Nebula said.

* * *

Later, Natasha watched from a window inside as Bucky and Nebula practiced fighting in the backyard of the avengers headquarters.

Steve walked up behind her and said, "Is it wrong for me to ship them now?"

"I'm actually seeing more of an older brother/little sister relationship forming," Natasha replied.

"Yeah," he said, "I can see that. You don't want to join in?"

"Watching them is enough to keep my mind off of things," she said, "besides, I'm learning his moves. He's really good."

Steve said, "I guess that's what happens when you're brainwashed to kill people for 70 years."


	4. New Idea

A month after the snap, and everyone was still reeling. Bruce went back to being a doctor. Loki was in Tronsberg, Norway. Nebula and Mantis went back to space. Tony went to live with Pepper in the countryside. Steve, Sam, Bucky, and Natasha were still in the avenger headquarters in upstate New York.

Steve sat at the dining room table next to Natasha who was eating her lunch. "You know," he started.

"If you're going to tell me to look on the bright side," she said hasitily, "I'm going to throw what's left of my sandwich at your face." She inhaled half of her sandwhich to make the conversation go quicker.

He continued, "I'm told New York City is almost done with the clean up efforts. Lots of people made money on the scap of all of the abandoned and destroyed cars that were filling up the streets."

"Good for them," she said sarcastically.

Without warning, a full pitcher of ice water was suddenly poured down Steve's back under his undershirt. He screeched in shock and leaped out of his seat to see Bucky standing behind him with a now empty water pitcher in his hands.

"What in the hell, Buck!" Steve shouted as he danced the ice cubes off of his back.

"That's payback," Bucky replied.

"For what!" Steve demanded.

Bucky put the pitcher on the counter and explained, "From back when you had poor circulation and you'd come up to me and say, 'My hands are so cold, Buck, feel them! Feel my hands! They're like ice!" He pushed his hands at Steve but he moved away from him. Soon they were running around the table while Natasha stared at him for being so childish. Bucky continued, "They're so cold! They're like icicles! Feel my fingers Bucky!"

Steve stopped eventually and pushed him away hastily, then said, "Alright I get it! How long have you been waiting to do that?"

"Since I could remember that you did that sort of thing to me," Bucky answered, "so for about three years now. I was waiting for the right moment."

Steve gave Natasha a pleading look and asked, "You couldn't have warned me?"

"I was wondering what the ice water was doing just sitting on the counter," she replied, smiling, then added, "honestly, Steve, didn't know he was going to do that."

"She didn't," Bucky said.

Steve stared at him and said, "You better watch your back from now on."

Bucky asked, "What are you going to do to me? I have faster reflexes than you."

"We'll see about that," Steve said as he grabbed Natasha's cup of water and tried to throw it at Bucky. He took Steve's hand in midair and aimed the cup back at Steve's face, making the water inside splash back at him instead.

Natasha stood up with her now empty plate and said, "His reflexes are faster than yours." She put the plate on the counter and walked out of the room. Steve was right behind her to change into new shirts and walked right passed Sam.

"Are the appliance delivery people here yet?" Sam asked.

"No," Bucky said sternly as he sat at the end of the table.

"They said it'd be either this week or next week," Sam said as he walked around the kitchen island, "and they said that the week before too, man. I just want a working oven and fridge again. What's all over the floor?"

"Steve had an accident," Bucky replied seriously. Sam gave him a WTF look but didn't say anything as he carefully walked around it to the otherside of the table toward him. Bucky asked, "Did anyone even ask Loki if he could fix things with his powers after he broke them?"

"Even if he can, do you think he would?" Sam asked as he sat next to him.

"I don't know," he answered, "I don't know most of the people we even saw in Wakanda or why Thanos wanted to kill everyone. I've been on ice. Couldn't he make double the rescourses instead of killing half of all life?"

"That's," Sam said, "uh...that's a good point actually. I can break some of it down for you if you want. You ever heard of Norse mythology?"

Bucky stared at him and said, "No. Why would I have?"

"What they didn't talk about that in the 40s or anything?" he asked sarcastically.

"Even if they did," Bucky said, "do you think I'd remember it?"

Sam pointed at him and continued, "So, in Scandinavia they have ancient Gods, Odin is the big one, the one in charge, and then his sons are Thor and Loki. Turns out they're just aliens that used to be on Earth 1,000 years ago."

"What?" he asked, incredulous.

"Yeah," he said, "I know. That's who they are. Thor is a big blonde guy that has lightning powers and a big hammer that only he can lift...well I guess it's an axe now, kind of. Anyway, Loki is his brother who just likes messing around but now he's a mess because...well, you know what happened. Are you getting all of this?"

Bucky started, "I don't-" then he realized he didn't want to sit through more of that confusing conversation and continued, "sure. Yeah. It makes sense."

"Hey," Natasha said as she walked up behind both of them, "Scott Lang is at the front door. What are you two doing ignoring him?"

Bucky asked, "Who is that?"

"The tiny dude that got huge at the airport when we were fighting Tony," Sam explained, "come on, you remember." He patted his metal arm.

"Don't touch me," Bucky said.

* * *

Scott walked around their kitchen and paced nervously around Natasha, Bucky, and Sam as Steve mopped up the floor by the table. He said, "So, half of all life is just...gone? It vanished into thin air? Like poof? Like half of the people in existence never existed in the first place?"

"We've been talking about it for a month now," Sam said, "where have you been this whole time?

Steve said, "We thought you were dead with everyone else, Scott."

He explained, "There's this thing called the quantum realm. It's where you shrink down and enter a different space time where it doesn't move the same way as our time does. I was in there when the snap happened."

Bucky froze and looked at everyone else to see if they heard the same craziness that he just did. "What?" Sam asked.

Steve asked, "What you're saying is that time doesn't work the same way there?"

"Is anyone eating this orange?" Scott asked as he took it out of the fruit basket, "Anyway, you said this snap happened a month ago, but I was only in the quantum realm for an hour." He started peeling apart the orange.

Bucky said, "So time goes slower in the..._realm_...you mentioned?" He looked over to see if anyone else was as confused as him and they were.

Scott continued, "Not just that. We can pick points in time we can sprout up in. Well, not points in time exaclty, more like other realities where we also exist in a different timeline. We can go back and get the stones before Thanos in those timelines and set everything back to the way it was before! Do you have anything to wash this down with? Like soda or something?" He grabbed the fridge door.

"No!" Sam said, "Don't!"

Scott opened the fridge and the broken shelves cascaded onto the ground with a crashing sound. "What's happened to your fridge?" he asked, "It looks like someone took a sledgehammer to it."

"A God got angry and happened to be here," Natasha answered.

Steve asked, "What were you saying about the stones?"

"Oh," he said as he struggled to put the shelves back, "sorry. So yeah, we could go back in time and get the stones before Thanos and do our own snap to make everything back to the way it was before. It's simple!" The shelves cascaded to the ground again.

"You can just leave that stuff there," Sam said as he watched him awkwardly move the broken shelves, "man, just, stop."

"Sorry," Scott said as he left them on the ground and struggled to close the fridge door again.

Bucky stepped up and said, "I got it."

Scott asked, "Is there anyone we could talk to about this?"

* * *

As Bruce walked through the front door the next day, Natasha shouted from upstairs, "Don't slam the-!" There was a bang as the door slammed shut and the glass in the window next to it shattered. She closed her eyes in annoyance.

"Oops, sorry!" Bruce shouted, "The window next to the door fell out of the frame. I forgot it was already cracked."

Natasha walked down the stairs to meet him and said, "The window delivery people are supposed to get here _eventually_ someday. Whenever they have time since they're short on people." She stopped as soon as she saw him in the foyer. "Bruce?"

"It's me," he said, in his Professor Hulk form.

"What?" she asked, "How?"

Sam walked down the stairs and said, "I heard glass breaking down here. What in the...what?" He stared at Bruce.

"Hi," he said awkwardly, "I came after I got the text from Nat." He held up his phone that was dwarfed in size compared to his giant hand.

Natasha said awkardly, "Come in."

* * *

In the living room, everyone stood around the room and in front of the holographic screen, the tall dark brown table, and the white couches together.

Bucky asked, "Who are you?"

Steve explained, "This is Doctor Bruce Banner, he was a pioneer in gamma radiation and then an accident happened and now he can turn into the Hulk...who he is now...but as Bruce. I didn't know that could happen." He stared at Bruce.

Scott said, "I am so confused. I thought Hulk and Bruce were separate."

"They were," he explained, "and then I combined the brawn and the brains into one. Hulk no longer controls me because I am him! Isn't this great?"

"Sure," Sam said uneasily.

Scott asked, "Okay well can you help us out with the quantum realm time travel thing?"

"Tony would be better at this," he confessed, "the more people we have on this the better. We should get Nebula, Mantis, and Loki too, just in case."

Bucky said, "That sounds like a horrible idea."

"What?" Bruce asked, "Why?"

"Well Tony doesn't want to come within 100 miles of this place because of him," Natasha explained as she pointed to Bucky, "Loki is an emotional wreck right now. Nebula and Mantis are off world. It's not looking good."

Bruce said, "Well, Steve, Scott, and I can talk to Tony personally. Nat, you contact Nebula and Mantis. Sam, Bucky, you two head over to Norway and try to talk Loki into coming back. We're going to need his help getting some of the stones even if he doesn't know anything about time travel."

"He did have the tesseract right before Thanos took it," Natasha said, "he has to know where and when in time to get it."

Sam said, "Man, it's going to take forever for us to find a flight over there and back."

"Find a flight?" Bucky said, "It's going to take forever to get through the airport! It would be easier and faster to have our own plane."

"The only one we know with their own plane is..." Sam said, not finishing his sentence. Bucky instantly knew it was Tony and he wasn't going to lend them a plane.

"Shit," Bucky whispered, esasperated.

Steve said, "Have fun."

Natasha giggled and said, "I thought you were going to say 'language' again."

Bucky stared at Steve in confusion. "Nothing, it's nothing," Steve said, then explained completely esasperated, "I said 'language' one time, ONE TIME, after Tony sweared and now I never hear the end of it!" He shook his head in shame. Bucky chuckled to himself and smiled at him. Steve asked, "What's so funny?"

"Your mom would say that to us all the time growing up," he replied, "remember? 'Watch your language, boys!'"

"Great," Steve said sarcastically, "and now there's that going to be thrown in my face. Thanks a lot."

"You're turning into your mother!" Bucky laughed.

Steve couldn't help but smile. "You know what!"He said jokingly as he grabbed the coffee cup off of the table, took the lid off, and tried to throw it in Bucky's face. Bucky tilted it toward Steve instead and it landed in his face. "Ah that's still hot!" He tried to wipe it away as everyone stared at them in confusion. "Don't you have a flight to find?" Steve asked halfheartedly.


	5. To Norway and Back

At the airport for the next available flight to Norway, Sam and Bucky made their way slowly through the TSA line. Sam went through first, easily making his way through the machines. When Bucky stepped through it, lights and small sirens went off like crazy and the agents gave him suspicious looks.

"Sir, I'm going to need you to step to the side," the less than amused TSA agent said.

"It's my arm," Bucky said as he walked away from the machine, "it's made of metal."

"Spread your legs," the agent commanded as he grabbed his wand.

"That's not my arm," he replied as he did as he said. The wand waved over his thighs and legs first, then when he moved it upward it went off loudly over Bucky's left arm.

The TSA agent asked, "What's in your left arm sir?"

"Metal," Bucky answered.

"Can you take it off and put it through the X-ray machine?" he asked seriously.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because it's attached to me," Bucky said, "_permanetly_. Can you detach your arms and put them through the x-ray machine?"

He said, "I'm going to have to frisk you down, sir. Take off your jacket." Bucky hastily removed his jacket and dramatically threw it off to the side. This showed off the sleeveless shirt he was wearing underneath.

"Dude you're holding up the line," Sam said jokingly, "can you hurry it up a little?" He already had his shoes, belt, and jacket back on making him completely ready to get to the gate for their flight.

The TSA agent explained, unamused, "Prostectic limbs aren't usually this large and they're always detachable sir." He poked and proded Bucky's left arm. "What is this made out of?"

"A metal from someplace in Africa," he answered.

He asked as he pocked at his arm some more, "What's inside of it?"

"More metal," Bucky answered.

"Where are you headed to today?" he asked.

"Norway," he answered.

"You can go," The TSA agent said, motioning him to leave.

* * *

In Norway, Bucky drove the rental truck through the countryside toward Tronsberg on a back country dirt road. Rich green mountains and fjords surrounded them as he headed down a valley along the water towards the town.

"How do you know how to drive?" Sam asked.

Bucky said, "I got my driver's license in 1937 and I've been driving cars since 1928. What I want to know, is why you chose to rent a truck with no backseat. How is Loki supposed to fit in here with us?" He glared at Sam for the oversight.

"Isn't this harder to drive than a 1937 car?" Sam asked, avoiding the question.

"No," he replied, "the car I had back then I had to get out and crank the front of the car in order to start it, and then you had to go inside and pump the gas while it started, and then you had to put the clutch in every few feet down the road and you didn't answer my question, Sam." He turned to glare at him.

Sam said, "Maybe Loki can teleport us back to New York."

Bucky looked back at the road and asked, "And how is this rental truck going to get back to the lot? It's $50 a day for this and even more each hour it's late."

"If you're so smart why didn't you handle this?" Sam snarked.

"Maybe I should have," Bucky said as he pulled into the town and stopped at the stone bridge.

"Hey," Valkyrie said as they pulled up to her with the passenger window down, "what brings you here?"

Sam explained, "We're looking for Loki. Can we see him?"

Her face fell. "Oh," she said, "the king isn't really seeing anyone at the moment. The last I checked he doesn't want to talk to anyone ever again."

"Can we try?" Bucky asked.

"He's in the stone house at the very end of this road," she explained, "you can't miss it because it's...broken. Good luck talking to him."

As Bucky pulled away, Sam said sarcastically, "This sounds promising."

* * *

They pulled up to a disheveled and broken stone house at the very end of the road, overlooking the fjord. Pieces of stones were scattered along the ground and the door was cracked in half. Every window was either cracked or shattered completely. The building stood crooked on it's foundation, obviously one wrong move from falling apart.

As they approached, Bucky kicked the front step and pieces of stone fell off to the side. "Stop that!" Sam demanded, "This whole thing is going to fall apart as soon as we step in here. I can feel it." He motioned for him to hurry up. They walked in the front door awkwardly. "Loki!" Sam called, "Hey man, are you in here?" They maneuvered around the broken furniture.

"What do you want?" Loki asked pitifully from another room.

They walked over some scattered and broken stones and through another cracked doorway to what looked like a living room. Loki was sitting across the room in an armchair with a scepter in his hand. His hair fell over his face and he wore the same light colored clothing as before in a dark space of the room.

"You look," Sam hestitated, "...great."

"Really?" Bucky asked him in disbelief.

"Well he's not covered in Thanos' blood anymore is what I meant," he said, "Anyway, Loki, we have some questions for you to answer. First of all, can you fix the stuff you break with your powers?"

Loki said as he stared at him in disbelief, "You came all this way simply to ask me _that question specifically_?"

Bucky said, "No, we didn't." Sam stopped him from moving forward.

"Of course I can," Loki explained, "why wouldn't I be able to fix things with my abilities?"

"Great," Sam said, "so, we have a plan on how to set everything right and bring everyone back from the dead, including Thor. Are you on board with that?"

Loki twitched and they heard a massive cracking sound above them. Debri fell on them from the roof. When Sam and Bucky looked up the whole ceiling beam came down on top of them. Sam dove down for cover as Bucky struggled to hold it up with his arms. He kneeled on the ground to help support the weight.

Loki asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Time travel," Sam said nervously as he got on all fours, "we're going to travel back in time and get the stones before Thanos."

He paused to think about it and Bucky asked as he strained to hold the roof up, "Do you want to help?"

"Do you know what you're doing?" Loki asked.

"No," Bucky confessed.

"The Hulk does!" Sam said, "Bruce Banner, he knows what to do along with Tony. He's got this all figured out. It'll work, we know it."

Loki replied, "Very well. I shall help your endeavor."

"Awesome," Sam said.

Bucky begged, "Can you raise the roof?" Without missing a beat, the roof suddenly felt light and moved upward against gravity. Everything in the house moved back into place and fixed itself instantly.

Sam said, "Now that's cool. Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any sort of teleportation abilities so we can get back to New York in a timely manner now, would you?" He smiled at Loki as he stood up.

"No," he confessed, "I can only teleport when I have the tesseract."

"Dammit," Sam said.

Bucky sighed and said, "This is going to suck."

* * *

When they stepped outside, the truck was sitting outside. Loki said, "A midgardian motorized vehicle, fascinating. I'll sit in the back of it." He was fully prepared to jump in too.

"That's not legal," Sam said as matter-of-factly, "and I don't want to get pulled over and have to explain ourselves to anyone even if European cops are nicer."

As Bucky opened the driver's side door, Loki asked, "Why are you driving?"

"Because somebody here has points on his license which means renting this truck would have been $160 a day if he were allowed to drive it," Bucky replied as he stared at Sam, "And someone else here doesn't have a driver's license at all." He glanced at Loki who smiled in agreement.

"About that," Sam said hastily, "you wouldn't believe what happened to me. So, I'm driving along on the highway and then all of a sudden this dude dressed in all black leather just jumped onto my car out of nowhere and now get this, rips through the back side window like it's nothing and throws a dude into traffic like it's no big deal. Then he put bullet holes throughout the car. Then he busted through the windshield and ripped the steering wheel right out of my hands so my car crashed like nobody's business. I told all of that to the insurance company and they were like, 'yeah right,' so now my insurance payments are through the roof and I have points on my license. Now you wouldn't happen to know anything about any of that, yeah?" He stared at Bucky accusingly.

Bucky smiled at him and replied, "No, I have no idea." He walked over to the driver's side of the car.

Sam said, "Man you better be lying. Tell me right now you're lying or I'll lose it."

"Of course I remember," Bucky replied, "I almost killed Steve that day. That would have been tragic."

"Bruh, other people almost died that day too!" Sam said hastily as opened the passenger door.

"Yeah you're right," Bucky said, "I almost killed Natasha." He got into the driver's side behind the wheel.

"Me!" Sam shouted, "You almost killed _me_ and a bunch of people actually did die because of you and Hydra and all of them." He looked back toward Loki so he didn't see Bucky flinch and tense up after hearing that word. He gripped the steering wheel and took a deep breath. After Bucky opened his eyes he saw that the steering wheel was now crunched under his fingers, the left side deeper than the right. He desperately tried to push it back into place so it was less noticeable.

Sam gestured for Loki to get in ahead of him to sit in the middle seat. "Let's go," he demanded.

Loki crossed his arms in defiance and said, "I don't think so."

Sam said, "We're going to be smashed together in this thing no matter who sits in the middle. Let's go." He pointed into the truck.

"I am a God," Loki said, "I refuse to be in the middle of anyone, especially between two men, in _any_ situation."

"Sam," Bucky demanded, gritting his teeth, "get in the truck."

Sam sighed and hopped into the middle as Loki took the passenger seat and shut the door. Their shoulders and hips touched as Sam was squished in the middle and Loki and Bucky were pressed up against their doors. Bucky asked as nicely as he could muster, "Can you move your legs so I can reach the gear shifter on the floor?" Sam put his ankles onto Loki's and stared at him, daring him to say anything about it.

"You couldn't have gotten a larger vehicle?" Loki asked.

"Don't look at me," Bucky said as he started to turn them around, "this wasn't my idea. I would have picked some sort of SUV or at least a truck with a backseat in it. I know they make those."

"Man, I don't want to hear it," Sam said, "And you, mister God of Mischief, do you have any kind of ID in order to get on the plane?"

He replied, "No but I can create one." He transformed himself in a young woman and showed a Norwegian passport.

"I need that power," Bucky said, annoyed.

* * *

Surprisingly, they went through the security checkpoints with ease and made it on the plane all the way to New York City without issue. It wasn't until they made it to customs that things went south.

"It says here you were born in March of 1917," the TSA lady said to Bucky in an unamused tone, "Mr. Barnes." She stared him down from behind the podium.

"Yes," he said awkwardly, "I was." _They didn't even notice that when I left America or left Norway,_ he thought.

She looked him over and said, "Uh huh. James Buchanen Barnes, why does that sounds familiar?"

He asked, "Have you ever been to the Captain America museum?" He gestured to himself and smiled at her.

"Of course I have," she said, "is that why you look so familiar? Bucky Barnes?" She stared at him and looked down at the passport in her hands.

"That's me," he replied, smiling as nicely as he could.

"Didn't you die by falling off of a moving train in 1944?" she asked.

"No," he said, "see, what happened to me also happened to Captain America. That's how I'm here and not 100 years old...in a way." He smiled wider.

She stamped his passport and said, "Just get a new ID that says you were born in 1980 or something. That makes it easier for all of us. You look better with short hair. Next!"

Meanwhile, in Loki's line he was still pretending to be a young woman. He handed his passport to the unenthused TSA agent that demanded, "Reason for coming here."

"I'm visiting some friends," he replied, annoyed.

"Are you going to work while you're here?"

"Hell no," Loki said, "I'm sitting on my ass doing nothing the entire time I'm here."

"When are you leaving?"

"I don't know," he said, "in like two weeks or something. My mom bought the ticket for me." Standing in line behind him, Sam rolled his eyes.

The TSA agent stamped Loki's passport and said, "Welcome to America. Next!"

As the three of them walked away from the customs checkpoint after the whole ordeal was over, Sam said, "I'm never traveling with either one of you ever again."


	6. Stones and Flirting

"We're back!" Sam announced as he carefully closed the door behind them at the avengers headquarters. "Loki, fix the window."

Loki stood in front of it and the pieces of broken glass put themselves back into place and became whole again in the window frame. "There," he said, "better?"

"Awesome," Tony said from the top of the stairs, "way to bring a murderer and liar to the avengers headquarters, Sam. I knew I could count on you guys to do the right thing while I was in the countryside relaxing." He walked away.

"Tony," Bruce said as he walked over to the top of the stairs, "sorry guys, come on up."

Bruce, Tony, Steve, Natasha, Sam, Mantis, Scott, and Nebula were in the living room waiting for them. Natasha asked, "What took you guys so long?"

Sam begged, "Please tell me that's a rhetorical question. You know what took so long! Look at who I had to travel with!" He gestered wildly at Bucky and Loki as they ignored him.

Loki walked passed him and said, "Everything is fixed."

Steve said, "That's great news, now we can use the refrigerator and oven again."

"So," Tony said, ignoring them, "time travel is apparently a thing. It works. Actually, what we're doing is going into alternate universes where Thanos hasn't gotten the stones yet. So I guess it's more like universe hopping."

Bruce said, "Yeah and once we use the stones to set everything right we can go back to those timelines right when we took them and those realities will be fine. It's actually really simple."

Scott said, "So, we know what we're doing."

Mantis said, "What are we doing, as a group, I mean."

Bruce explained, "We have to figure out the best time and place to get each stone..."

As he was talking, Bucky picked up a cup of water on the table next to Steve. Panicked, Steve turned around at him and desperately mouthed at him, _don't you dare!_ Fearing Bucky was going to dump it onto him. Confused, Bucky drank some water nonchalently and gave him a WTF face as Steve gestured angrily at him.

"Excuse me," Bruce said, mildly annoyed, "are you two okay over there?"

They froze, as if they were caught by the teacher being naughty in the back of the classroom together. "We're fine," Steve said as calmly as he could, "continue, please." He crossed his arms and looked at Bucky who nodded in agreement.

Tony said, "Everyone here has had a run in with at least one stone, if not straight nearly been killed by one or more at some point or another." He glanced at Bucky who looked mildly confused. "Most of us here have, anyway."

"I have not," Scott confessed.

Tony continued, "Which one should we start with? Why not the reality stone? When did he get that? Where did that come from?"

"Thor," Loki answered as he walked behind Bruce and sat on a couch comfortably.

Steve asked, "How did he get it?"

"Well," he explained painfully, "it was a liquid, for some reason, rather than a stone and it made its way inside of Thor's girlfriend-that Jane girl. It was killing her and then elves showed up to try and get it from her and then I killed them and faked my death before taking the throne of Asgard. When Thor showed up years later it was completely surprised that I was still alive and I had to show him where I put our father on Earth. Then apparently Thor had an older half sister he never knew about and trust me, if you thought I was evil you're wrong to compare me to her. Then she chucked us out of the Bifrost where we landed onto Sakaar, the garbage planet. I for one, was happy there but no, Thor wanted to go back to Asgard where she was killing people left and right. Then I decided to do the right thing for once and had to fight zombie soldiers on the rainbow bridge before I stole the tesseract once again. Then Thanos found us."

"Hold the phone," Tony said forcefully, "stop talking. Your story stopped being about the stone a while ago and I for one have no idea where you were taking that."

Scott confessed, "I got lost in all of that explanation. What were we talking about again?"

"The reality stone," Mantis replied, "also, if Thor is your brother and this sister of his appeared, wouldn't she also be your sister?"

Loki said, "No I'm only Thor's brother because we were raised together. That's the only reason I claim him. I only heard about that woman recently and therefore claim no relation to her, and there isn't any."

Bruce said, "We have to go back to when the stone was inside of Thor's girlfriend. When was that?"

"Asgard, 2013," Loki answered.

"Alright," Bruce said as he wrote it down, "for the reality...liquid? I'm just going to call it a stone."

Natasha said, "We're going to need a way to extract it from her if it's inside of her, right?" She looked at Loki nervously.

"Exactly," he said.

Bruce said, "We can get down to the details of that later."

"We know the tesseract, or the space stone, is in New York in 2012," Tony said, glancing at Loki.

Loki added, "The mind stone is also there, in my staff."

"Yeah," Tony said, "we're well aware of that by now. Bruce, write that down."

"Already got it," he said.

Steve asked, "Where's the time stone in all of this? Tony, do you know?" He looked at him.

"Apparently a wizard named Doctor Stephen Strange in New York City has it," Tony said, he braced himself as he added angrily, "and he just gave it away!"

Natasha said, "Wait, it's also in New York, was he there in 2012?"

"Probably," Tony said hastily, "why?"

"You don't know what I'm saying?" she explained, "If we pick the right year three of the stones are in New York City." She looked around at everyone.

After the epiphany, Steve said, "Well that narrows down tracking some of these things but what about the rest of them?"

Mantis explained, "I know where the power stone is. Before my master Ego found his son Peter Quill, also known as Starlord, Peter took it from Morag before it eventually made it to Xandar. I'm assuming that's where Thanos got it."

Scott asked, "Who's Morag?"

"A planet," Mantis said, "not a person, and Starlord was there in 2014. That's what he told me, anyway."

Steve said, "Alright, what about the soul stone? Where is that?"

"I know where it is," Nebula said sadly, "Thanos killed my sister in order to get it on Vormier."

Sam asked, "That's also a planet in space?"

"Yes," she answered seriously.

"We'll write that down," Bruce said, "now we just have to figure out who is going where."

Tony explained, "So, New York City, 2012, probably right after we defeat Loki for obvious reasons. If I remember correctly I am the one that carried the tesseract down the elevator before giving it to Thor. I'll take myself out for that one."

Scott asked, "Will you need help?"

"What are your powers again?" he asked, "What do you do?"

"Seriously?" Scott said, "I'm Antman. I can shrink down really tiny and fit anywhere or I can get really giant. You don't remember?"

Tony replied, ignoring the question, "Perfect! I have a plan! It's set in stone. We'll get the tesseract together."

Bruce asked, "What about the staff? How are we going to get it from Hydra without causing a massive scene in the middle of everything?" Bucky tensed up and anxiously crossed his arms merely from hearing him say that word. Steve put his hand on his shoulders to help him relax.

Natasha noticed and said calmly, "If we intercept them in the elevator we should be able to get it from them no problem. I'll do it."

Bruce wrote that down and said, "I'll talk to Doctor Strange in 2012 New York."

"I'll go to Morag for the power stone," Nebula said.

"I want to go too," Sam said, "I want to see space again. That was awesome."

Steve said, "I'd love to go back to space too. Which other one was in space again? The soul stone, right? Buck, what do you say?" He wrapped his arm around Bucky's shoulders tighter.

"Sure," Bucky replied, smiling, "I'm ready."

Tony asked, "Mischievous one over there, Loki, aren't you going to go to Asgard for us? Are you paying attention or listening to anything we're saying?" He looked over to see Loki slumped on a couch behind Bruce.

"I guess I can go there," he said sadly.

"What's your problem now?" Tony demanded angrily throwing his arm on the table for emphasis.

"I'll have you know that's the day my mother was murdered," Loki said, staring at him.

Everyone turned to look at Tony awkwardly. He said as he lowered his eyes, "I'm sorry."

Mantis said, "I don't think you should be alone. I've never been to Asgard, I've heard it's beautiful and that everything is made of gold!" Loki smiled as he remembered.

Tony took a deep breath and said, "Well we have our assignments."

"Wait," Steve said, "how are we going to perform the snap when we get back here? Who's going to do that?"

"We just need a glove," Tony said, "a gauntlet, yeah? Right? I'll make one out of the ironman suit materials. It can't be that hard."

Bruce said, "We can figure out which one of us here will do it later. Why don't you make the glove now while Scott and I calibrate the exact coordinates and times we need while building a time machine."

"Universe hopping machine actually," Scott corrected him.

"Yeah," Bruce said, "that."

* * *

Mantis, Nebula, Natasha, Sam, Steve, Bucky, and Loki sat around the next living room over as Tony worked on building a glove and Bruce and Scott were elsewear building the universe hopping machine.

"Well this is boring," Nebula said.

Steve explained, "This kind of stuff takes time. There has to be a few boring moments every once in a while."

Sam leaned back on the couch he was sitting on and said, "Man it's going to be wild for everyone when they get back. Can you imagine missing a whole month of your life?" He glanced at Bucky and Steve before he looked away.

"It's not so bad," Bucky said, "you wake up, you're told time has passed and if you don't move on you'll stay stuck in the past so you move on." He glanced up from sitting at the end of the couch at Steve who was standing beside him. "Right Steve?"

"Yeah," he replied nervously, "yeah. You move on."

Natasha, while sitting in an armchair next to them, asked, "Wouldn't you want to rethink your life for the future?" She gazed into Bucky's eyes.

"That's too new to me," Bucky replied as he gazed back at her, "I need someone to show me how."

"Are you asking for my help?" she asked.

He asked half-heartedly, "What else do you think is happening right now?"

Natasha asked, "Why don't we teach each other that skill? The idea of planning an entire future for myself, I'm new to that as well." She smiled at him innocently.

Nebula groaned in annoyance. Mantis said, "Remember what we talked about, Nebula? You can use words to describe your feelings."

"I am deeply uncomfortable right now," Nebula said.

"Seriously," Sam said, "what is even happening here? When did this start?" He gestured to Natasha and Bucky but they completely ignored him and remained unmoving. Sam looked over at Steve from across the room on the couch he was sitting on and said, "Cap you're not even surprised?"

"Knowing him," Steve gestured to Bucky, "I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner." He remembered the countless double dates Bucky forced him to go on throughout the 1930's in the 40's before the war.

Bucky continued talking as if they were the only two people in the room, "I think we should start improving ourselves by telling the truth to each other at all times."

"Oh?" Natasha asked, "Does that mean there's something on your mind you want to tell me right now?"

"You're really bad at flirting," he confessed, "it feels like you're trying to seduce me in order to get information."

She shook her head, smiling, and replied, "I apologize, that's all I've ever been trained to do. How bad am I?"

"You're worse than Steve," Bucky said, "and I thought he was as bad as it gets."

Steve scoffed and said defensively, "I know how to flirt!"

"No, no," Sam said as he leaned forward in his seat in anticipation, "don't shut him down yet. I want to hear this. How bad is Steve at flirting?"

"You haven't seen him?" Bucky asked, "It's hard to watch, and listen to."

Steve said defensively, "I can flirt well, no matter what you say, Buck."

"I don't want to hear it, Steve," Bucky said seriously, "you thought fondue was a sex thing." Sam and Natasha burst out laughing as Steve glared at him.

"No-" Steve stuttered as his face turned redder, "that's not true...at all. He's lying. Oh for crying out loud! How did you even know that happened? You weren't even there when I had that conversation or when I heard that word for the first time."

Bucky replied, "Howard told me."

"Who?" Sam asked, still cracking up, "I need to know what happened, when it happened, why it happened, everything that went down." He looked at Natasha who couldn't keep a straight face.

Bucky's face fell as he said, "Howard...Stark, told me." He looked over at the doorway, hoping Tony didn't hear anything.

"Really Bucky?" Steve asked as he gave him a disappointed look.

Natasha asked, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," he answered coldly, unable to look her in the eyes.

Natasha said in Russian, "I thought we were telling the truth to each other at all times now." She stood up and walked over to him seductively, then stradled his lap as she sat down.

"That's it," Nebula said as she stood up, "I'm leaving." Mantis and Steve followed her out of the room.

Steve turned around just before he left to see Sam and Loki still in the room. "Sam," he said, "Loki." He gestured to the exit in front of him.

"I want too see how two ex-assassins get down," Sam said.

"You can leave if you want to," Loki replied, "this is the best entertainment I've had in months."

Bucky ignored them and said in Russian, "Your accent sounds strange, like a foreigner."

"It's been a while since I've spoken to anyone in it," she replied in Russian, "you don't sound like a native yourself."

"I'm not," he replied, still in Russian, "it's a second language for me, why would I sound like a native speaker?"

Natasha replied, switching to English, "Steve said you were quite the ladies man back in the 1930s and '40s but times have changed and you haven't been at it for a while. I'm wondering if you still got it in you. Teach me your ways."

He caressed her hair with his right hand, careful not to tug at the strands, and explained, "It's different for everyone. For someone like you, I'm sure you've been called beautiful more times in a single week than you can count."

"Every time I walk the city streets," she replied, "day or night."

He said, "That means I have to compliment other parts of you. I have to find parts that you feel no one pays any attention to. The way you check in on people, subtly or not, when you know they're hurting, is beautiful."

Natasha smiled and whispered, "Thank you. You really are good at this. It's my turn now. I love the way you can rattle Steve. No one else can do that. I admire it, in a fun way, not a sociopathic way, I promise."

Without warning, Bucky leaned forward and carefully placed Natasha on her back on the coffee table and did a complete handstand and flipped over her and the table to the other couch in front of Sam. "Oh," Sam said, "What the-! You could have hit me!"

"Hey!" Steve said, standing behind the couch with a pitcher of ice water in his hands, "Nat you were supposed to hold him down for me!"

"I was holding him down," she replied.

Steve asked, "How'd you know?" He stared at Bucky.

"I heard your footsteps," Bucky explained, "and sloshing water so I knew what you were going to do." He gave Natasha a disappointed look as he walked passed her.

She stood up and said in Russian, "Wait, I meant everything I said. I promise."

He replied in Russian, "Thank you." He walked passed Steve and shoved the water out of his hand playfully, soaking Steve completely down the front.

"What just happened?" Sam asked.

Loki started clapping from across the room and said, "Now that was a great show. I had no idea midgardians could be so dramatic."


	7. Collection

When they used the universe hopping machine later, Loki and Mantis stood in Asgard's palace behind a pillar far away from anyone and everyone else in 2013.

Mantis asked, "Where are we going?"

"She's in the room around the corner at the end of the hall," Loki said, "and this is the plan." He turned into Thor and had Mantis turn into a guard for the palace. Loki explained in Thor's voice, "We'll go in there and I'll keep her calm and inject this thing into her, get the aether and then I'll get out of there. You'll stand at the door. Follow me."

"I love it!" she said too loudly, then whispered, "Sorry."

As they walked down the massive hallway, Loki gasped and shoved Mantis hastily behind a pillar beside them. "What's the matter?" she asked.

"Shush!" Loki demanded, "It's my mother, she can always see right through my illusions so shut up or she'll spot us!"

"Loki," his mother's voice came from behind him.

He screamed, jumped, and turned around as she jumped back and screamed too. He said as calmly as he could, "You're mistaken mother, I'm Thor not Loki. You should know that."

"Right," she said, "Loki, who are you hiding from?"

Loki dropped the illusion for both of them and said, "No one, apparently."

"You're a bit..." she said causously, "disheveled...in the future. What's the matter? What happened to you? Why are you here?"

"How did you know I'm from the future?" Loki whispered.

"I was raised by witches, boy," she explained, "you know I see more than with eyes. I can see into the future and I know you're not the Loki I know. He's downstairs in his cell. Now what are you doing here and why are you so scared?"

Loki said, "It's a long story."

After he explained everything that happened in the past several weeks of his life in detail, Frigga said, "So that's why you're here, and in hiding. Well that's no problem. I'll even help you."

Loki said, "Mother I was about to go in there as Thor and stab her with this."

She took the device from him and said, "I'll go in as Thor and you'll see how it's done by a master witch herself." She changed herself into her son and then changed Loki and Mantis into palace guards.

They marched down the hall and into Jane's room without knocking and Frigga stabbed Jane so fast she didn't know what happened and passed out. Afterwards, she tossed the device to Loki as the illusion wore off the three of them.

She asked, "Is that all you need?"

"Actually," he said, "I'll need something from Father's vault as well. I can't promise it'll be returned."

* * *

Meanwhile, on Vormier in 2014, Bucky and Steve appeared at the top of the tallest mountain on the planet and walked around a wall of stone to see Red Skull.

"Welcome," he said nonchalantly.

"You," Steve said, completely shocked. They both took out a gun and leveled them at him. "You're supposed to be dead!"

"Gentlemen," Red Skull explained clamly, "we're all supposed to be dead."

Bucky replied hastily, "No thanks to you! You're the reason we're all here!"

Steve said as calmly as he could, lowering his gun, "We're not here to discuss this. Johan, what are you doing here?"

"I guide those to something I cannot posess," he explained as he walked toward the edge of the cliff, "that is my punishment for trying to use the space stone for my own personal gain. In order to obtain the soul stone, one must lose one that which they love." He turned to face them, now at the top of the cliff.

Steve repeated, confused, "Lose one that which they love?"

"A sacrifice?" Bucky asked, "Someone has to die in order to get this stone? Why?"

Red Skull explained, "In order to gain the power of the soul stone, one must know the pain it is to inflict such pain onto someone else. The price is a soul for the soul stone."

Steve said, "We don't want to inflict pain on anyone."

"Not even Thanos?" Bucky asked.

"I-" he started, "that's not what I mean. Listen, Johan, trillions, septillions, of people are dead in our timeline and we can bring them back with the soul stone and make sure that never happens again. Isn't that seen as only a good thing?"

"I'm not the one who made the rules, Captain," Red Skull said, "I only guide people here."

Bucky asked hastily, "How do we know you're telling the truth?"

"Kill me if you're going to," Red Skull taunted, "believe every word I've said, or don't, it doesn't matter to me and no matter what you do, it won't change your fates. Someone needs to fall to their death while the other takes the stone and leaves without them." He gestured to the cliff.

"Bucky," Steve said, "Thanos came here with his daughter and left without her. He's telling the truth but don't do anything rash. Someone's supposed to jump off of this cliff, but we're both enhanced. We've survived falls higher than this before."

Red Skull explained, "The gravity here is much stronger than where we're from. Your velocity increases ten-fold compared to Earth so I can assure you that once someone leaves the edge, they will never return to the living."

After a moment to take a deep breath, Steve said stoically, "It should be me." He turned to look at Bucky, who was devastated.

"No," he said, "Steve, it shouldn't and you know it."

"Bucky-" he said calmly.

"Steve we can think of another way to do this!" Bucky said desperately as he held him back and walked in front of him, "Maybe, we can go to a different time and place where the soul stone is already in use and steal it from whoever is using it then."

Steve shook his head and explained, "We can't. The only time we know for a fact that someone is using it is when Thanos takes it from here and we already lost to him once when he had the stones. This is the only way." He tried to walk around Bucky only for him to push him back.

Bucky said, "There has to be other people. You, ugly," he pointed his gun to Red Skull again, "there has to have been other people that have been here before us. When was that? We need to know the time exactly!"

"Of course," Red Skull answered, "but since I've been here all have failed. They could not bare the fact that they would lose that which love in order to obtain the soul stone so they have always walked away, defeated, every single time."

Steve took a deep breath and said, "It has to be done. I can do this for the universe." He turned and slowly gave Bucky his shield.

"Don't you dare, Steve," Bucky said, "You have to live! You know why!" He tried to push Steve away as he walked around him.

"You can still live your life, Buck," Steve said calmly as he spun around Bucky, his back to the cliff, only a few feet away from the edge now.

"I don't need to," Bucky said as he firmly let the shield with Steve, "Let me do this, I can do this!" He tried to get around Steve again only to end up pushing him closer to the edge.

Steve stopped him and said desperately, "I can't watch you die again!" When Bucky froze in place, they stood eye to eye, just a few inches away from the cliffside now. "I can't," he whispered.

"I didn't-"

"I know but I thought you did," Steve explained, "and it was my fault. I can't let that happen again, besides, you deserve a chance to prove that you'll do the right thing. You're not the Hydra assassin everyone things you are. You're not!"

Choking up, Bucky said, "You're the only reason I'm alive right now, Steve. The only reason. When I remembered them, the things I did, the things I went through with the Russians and Hydra though the whole 20th century I was going to end it. I didn't want to live with the pain but I couldn't forget you!" He hugged him tight.

Steve said hugged him tight and explained calmly, "There are other reasons to live, Bucky, you just have to live long enough to discover them."

"They'll blame me," Bucky said desperately, "for your death. The whole world will say it's my fault you're gone. How am I supposed to explain this? Just let me go."

"No," Steve said sternly, almost taking a step back and realizing there was only air under his foot.

"Steven Grant Rogers!" Bucky begged.

"James Buchanan Barnes," Steve said as calm as he could, struggling to hold back tears.

"Don't make me do this," Bucky begged as he held Steve's shoulders carefully, "Please."

Steve whispered, nodding slightly, "Buck, it's the end of the line. You can do this to save half the universe. It's okay." He held the side of his face, and then let go of him.

"I'm sorry," Bucky whispered back.

He tapped Steve's chest and watched as Steve fell backwards. He closed his eyes as he waited for impact, tears streaming down his face. He quickly wiped them away as he heard the harsh THUD. When he glanced down, Steve was dead. The clouds above him reacted violently.

In a flash, Bucky suddenly appeared in a body of water with the stone in his right hand. He sat up, horrified.

As calmly as he could while still trying to keep himself together, Bucky walked over to see Steve's dead body still laying at the bottom of the cliff. The smallest pool of blood was under him.

"Steve," Bucky whispered, "I can't just leave you here." He struggled to sit him up and carry him onto his back. "This was easier when you were 90 pounds and 5 foot nothing," he added.

He grabbed both of their wrists at the same time, the stone still in his hand, and pushed the button to go back to modern day avengers headquarters.


	8. Reeling

"Well that was excillerating," Tony said excitedly when everyone was back in the present at the avengers headquarters.

Natasha said, "Speak for yourself! I had to kick all of Hydra's asses and knock Steve out when we he wouldn't let me leave with this stone." She turned to look at Steve only to see Bucky putting him gently on the ground.

Worried, Bruce asked, "What happened over there, Bucky?"

"The soul stone requires a sacrfice," Bucky said shakily, "and he wouldn't let me do it." He stood over Steve's body as he heart broke.

"He did what?" Tony asked in horror, "WHAT?!"

Sam whispered in horror, "Oh my God."

"You heard me," Bucky said as he stood up.

Natasha examined Steve and desperately checked for his pulse, only to find nothing. "He's right," she said sadly, "he's dead. Steve's gone."

Tony demanded angrily, "You couldn't have killed yourself to save billions-trillions-septillions of people across the entire universe!? You had to make him do it!?"

"Tony," Bruce said calmly, "now isn't the time to get angry at him." He put his hand in front of Tony to hold him back carefully.

"If not now when?!" Tony shouted, "He murdered Steve!"

"I didn't want him to die!" Bucky shouted desperately, "I tried to save his life!" He dropped the stone onto the ground at his feet.

"Bucky," Natasha said nervously as she watched him leave. She turned to Tony and asked, "Are you happy now?"

Tony demanded, "Don't talk to me."

* * *

Bucky sat on a bench at the edge of the pond and overlooked the water as best as he could with watery eyes. Instead of enjoying the peaceful sounds of nature he hated it. He didn't want the birds to chirp joyfully or the ripples of the small waves made by frogs to calm him down. Eventually, he heard the lightest footsteps ever, walking toward him.

When Natasha appeared, she sniffled and asked, "Mind if I sit here?"

Bucky looked up to see her with bright red watery eyes, similar to his own. "Do what you want," he said.

She sat to the left of him and said, "It's not your fault."

"If he pushed me off of that cliff," Bucky explained, "no one would be this upset."

"I'd miss you," she confessed, "I'd mourn your loss. Steve would be so beside himself I don't think he could cope. Sam would miss you too, and so would Nebula. Listen, I don't blame you for what he did. Sacrificing himself for the greater good sounds exactly like something Steve would do; as does him believing in second chances for someone no matter what they've done in the past."

"Thanks," he said awkwardly without looking at her.

Natasha looked out over the greenery and confessed, "I used to be an assasin."

"I know," he said, glancing at her and sitting up straighter.

She asked, "Steve told you?" He shook his head. "You looked me up on the internet and saw all of my leaked files?" He shook his head again.

He explained, "Your footsteps are much lighter than a normal person's. I almost can't hear you coming. _Almost_. Judging by your gait you were a ballerina at one point, probably for several years."

"Wow," she said, "I'm actually impressed. You didn't even guess 'dancer,' you knew it was ballet from the start. They trained you to do that?"

He nodded and said, "It's easier to take out your targets when you know everything about them."

She smiled and said, "My point is, I never thought I could redeem myself after I stopped working with the Russians. I had so much red in my ledger I wondered if I could ever get rid of it all and make things right. You can't make things right when you're dead."

"Do I even deserve to try?" Bucky asked.

"You're still breathing," Natasha replied, "you're still taking in the same oxygen as everyone else whether or not you try. Do you really think Steve would want you wallowing in misery of his death thinking you don't deserve to live?"

Bucky looked away from her as he refused to answer that. He knew she was right but he didn't want to admit to himself, not yet.

She took a deep breath, relaxed, and said, "A couple of weeks ago, Steve asked me to do something for him. It was going to be a surprise, for you."

"Did he ask you to distract me as he tried to pour ice water onto me?" Bucky asked.

"He did but that's not what I'm talking about," she explained, "he wanted me to look up different people for you. The only one I found still alive was an Elenora Gushchin, maiden name, Barnes."

Bucky's face changed to shock and asked, "My youngest sister? You're sure it's her? She's still alive?"

She continued, "Born December 3rd, 1925, in Abraham Hospital. She lives in Stamford, Connecticut now, in her home, as a widow. 94 years old. Your brother died 15 years ago, and your other sister died 8 years ago. Your dad in 1974 and your mom in 1981. Elenora Gushchin is the only one still alive."

Bucky, still in shock, said, "You're saying I should go and see her. I don't think I should."

"If you knew she was still alive after being killed in action after several decades," Natasha said calmly, "would you want to see her again, even if she looked like she was still young?" Bucky smiled at her with tears still in his eyes. She stood up and added, "Let's join everyone inside. Maybe we can bring Steve back with everyone else. We have to at least try."

* * *

Inside, a tearstained Bruce was beginning to use the hologram in the living room of the avengers headquarers to scan each of the stones. Bruce, Loki, Tony, Scott, Natasha, Mantis, Sam, and Bucky sat or stood around the table in a melancholy mood. Even Loki couldn't manage a smile.

"Loki why are you so upset?" Tony demanded, "Don't you hate all of us?"

"Captain America was my favorite one of you to pretend to be for fun since he's so self rightous and patriotic," he replied, "it is sad to see him gone."

Natasha said as she leaned against the table with her arms outstretched, "As hard as this is, we need to focus." She couldn't lift her head up to look them in the eyes.

"I have all of the stones lined up in Tony's glove," Bruce explained as he brought it out and put it on the table.

Loki asked, "Who's going to do the snap?"

"We saw how badly it hurt Thanos was after he did it," Bruce said.

Mantis said, "Then someone very big and strong should do it."

Scott explained, "Before we even do that we need to know what exactly we are wishing for."

"I think we should make everything the same as it was," Bruce explained, "and have Thanos and his armies be already dead by the time we get back to that final battle in Wakanda."

"I think that's two wishes," Loki said, "and I don't think it works that way with one snap."

Natasha said, "If we made it back to Wakanda with Thanos still alive, everything would be exactly the same way it was before. I'm assuming our memories would be wiped. We wouldn't remember what happened and Thanos would win all over again. We'd put ourselves in a permanent time loop. We can't do it."

Tony asked, "Why don't we just wish to bring them all here with us in the present?"

"Are you kidding?" Bruce said, "That would cause so much chaos!"

"Yeah," Sam said, "think of all the people in airplanes or something. Would they just reappear and then fall out of the sky to their deaths? What about on trains, or on boats, hell, even in the middle of cities!"

Tony said, "Alright, then we bring everyone here in a safe manner, even those who died indirectly from the snap like the ones in car accidents or who got lost at sea." Everyone glanced at each other, wondering if it would work.

"That," Scott said hesitantly, "works, I think."

"Sounds good to me," Bruce admitted, "now who's going to do this?"

Tony said, "Well first of all, I don't trust you," he pointed at Loki, "and I don't like you," he pointed at Bucky, "so they're not doing it."

"I'm surprised you even managed to put the power stone into that glove of yours," Loki said as he walked over to the table join them, "it incinerates any mortal that touches it."

Tony said, "That doesn't sound right." He tried to grab it and it burned him. He waved his hand in the air painfully and said, "He might have a point."

"Let me try," Bruce said as he reached out. When he touched it the same thing happened. "That stings."

Sam asked, "Does metal do anything to it?" He looked at Bucky. When Bucky tried with his left hand, he recoiled and grimmaced in pain. "So your arm feels it?"

"No," he answered, "the pain went down my whole spine. Ah." He moved his shoulders to help ease the pain in his back.

When no one was looking, Loki reached out and grabbed it easily. "How?" Tony demanded.

"I'm a God," Loki said, "I do what I want."

"Like take over Earth," Tony said, "And kill and brainwash a bunch of people for no reason. Why is no one here remembering or caring about that tiny little detail? Most of us were there when it happened!" He turned and glared at Bucky for not being there.

Bruce said, "Tony, he's been through a lot since that happened."

Loki shook his head while laughing and said, "You have no idea what I've done for you, for all of you standing in this very room at this very moment."

"You better tell me what you're talking about," Tony demanded, "before I break your neck!"

"I'm the reason everyone in this room is here at this very moment," Loki said calmly, not at all intimidated by Tony's empty threat.

Scott said, "I'm not following."

"Yeah," Natasha said, "what are you saying?"

He asked, "Who brought you, the avengers, together, originally?"

"Nick Fury," Tony said seriously.

Loki explained, "Oh please, if I really wanted to I could have brainwashed him just like I did with the bow and arrow man and I could have destroyed this world from the inside out and no one would have known until it was too late to fix it."

"You..." Tony said, struggling to come up with the right wording for Loki, "asshole! I know you're lying! You threw me out a window 100 stories off of the ground! Don't try to tell me that was for my own good!"

Bucky looked at Sam and asked, "What?"

"I don't know, man," he replied, "that was before I met Steve."

Loki said, "I saw you activating your suit. I'm not deaf, I heard you telling your special little computer what to do and I saw you collecting the things you needed for it. I knew as soon as you took off your old suit that you were getting a new one. If I truly wanted you dead I would have destroyed that suit and then thrown you out the window."

"I don't believe this," Tony said, "you tried to tear us apart, that's even what you told us to our faces! Why would you want all of us fighting you together?"

Loki replied, "I brought you all together because I knew what was coming."

Bruce said, "You taunted me!"

"That was a mistake," he admitted, "I'll confess to that."

"You knew all of this that we're dealing with right now was going to happen?" Tony demanded, "And you didn't tell us or say anything about it back then? You really are evil."

Loki said, "I can't see into the future, but I knew Thanos would come here eventually since you happily took the mind stone from me. If I were truly as evil as you feared me to be I would have set up over a dozen portals across the planet _like I was instructed to_ and then you and your little avenger friends never would have been able to stop the destruction across the world. Instead I told The Other who told Thanos you were too much for me to handle. I knew a group of people would be needed in order to stop him. I didn't know you would lose."

"You!" Tony shouted.

"Tony," Bruce said, holding him back, "stop it! We need to stop arguing! I'll do the snap myself since the radiation from the stones is mostly gamma. It's almost like I was made for this." Loki put the power stone back into alignment with the others.

Bruce put the glove onto his right hand and struggled to maintain the power of all of the infinity stones. After he snapped, everything went white and faded back to normal. His arm and the right side of his face was burned to a crisp.

Tony asked, "Did it work?" They carefully looked out the window and saw birds and trees were coming to life right before their eyes.

Suddenly, there was a crashing sound in the distance. "Did anyone else hear that?" Bucky asked.

Loki said, "It sounds like something just crashed into the building."

Sam asked, "Where's Nebula right now?" He looked around the room at everyone and just realized he hadn't seen her. "Did she even come into the room with us? I don't remember seeing her in here," he said.

Everyone ran out of the room toward the noise.


	9. The Fight

They ran into the room where they had the time machine, and Nebula was standing next to it. There was a huge hole in the glass ceiling and broken glass everywhere.

Natasha asked, "What are you doing? What happened?"

Sam said, "You said you're good now, Nebula, that you've changed and don't want him to win. You're not on his side anymore!"

"What did you do?" Tony demanded. A shadow suddenly covered everyone's faces as they looked up to see what had blocked out the sun. A large ship was floating ominously above them. "What did you do!" Tony shouted at her desperately.

Nebula said, "I brought the ending to you."

"Are those rockets?" Bucky asked as he watched in horror as one headed in their direction.

"Missles!" Sam shouted.

Bruce said, "Everybody get down!"

Tony got his suit around him and put up the biggest shield he had to cover Mantis behind him. Sam took the Captain America shield and covered himself as best as he could. Bucky grabbed Natasha with his right arm and covered them both as best as he could with his left as they dove into the ground for cover. Bruce and Loki braced themselves for impact. Scott went to the size of an ant.

When the blast hit, everyone went airborne and flew in different directions. The building disintegrated on impact. Pieces and chunks of it flew everywhere as it fell apart on top of them.

Immediately after everything began to settle, Loki flew the pieces that fell onto him in to the air dramatically, then carefully put them back down where he had been laying.

Bruce threw the building off of himself and asked, "Is everyone alright?"

Scott went back to normal size and said, "I'm here! I'm good. Where is everyone else?" He looked around at the rubble.

"Can you see through things?" Bruce asked Loki.

"No," he answered as he pushed some concrete away from him, "I can't."

Tony pushed pieces of concrete and rebar off of him and helped Mantis to her feet. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Bruised," she replied, "but I'll be fine. We have bigger problems to deal with now, like where did that come from?"

"I'm hit," Sam said shakily off to the side, "ah, oh God my leg is broken! It's definetly broken." He pushed a beam off of himself and saw his left leg just above the knee was obviously broken.

Bucky shoved the concrete on top of him and Natasha into the air. Natasha sat up and climbed out of the hole first, and then turned to help Bucky out. As she straightened herself out, she said, "I'm going to be feeling this tomorrow."

"Damn this hurts," Sam complained.

Bucky ran over and pulled a beam off of him easily with his left arm. "You should try to relax," Bucky said.

"How can I relax with that thing up there trying to kill us?" Sam asked as he pointed toward the ship and Bucky helped him stand up.

"It's Thanos," Loki said, "he's here. Nebula must have brought him from the past."

"The stones," Bruce said, "where are they?"

A large beam came out of the ship. Nebula popped out of the rubble, of the building, unscathed, and ran over to it. Thanos appeared on the ground, and hundreds upon thousands of his alien hoards and armies came out of the sky and headed straight for them.

Tony said, "We have to distract Thanos first."

"We have to find the stones again before he does!" Scott said, panicking.

Tony said, "Everyone calm down this isn't the time to panic! Scott, get big. Bruce, Nat, Loki, attack Thanos with me. Everyone else, look for those damn stones!"

"Actually," Loki said, "I had a feeling something like this would happen. Stay behind me." He pulled the Frost Giant casket out of his jacket and revealed it with his magic. He aimed it toward Thanos' army that was now ready to attack and slowly turned the ground and his entire forces into huge iciciles that spread across the land in front of them and into the sky.

Sam asked as he leaned on Bucky for support, "Why is he turning blue when he's doing that?"

"You're asking the wrong person," Bucky replied.

Tony said, "What in the-you've had that on you this whole time? Did you have that back in 2012?"

Loki put the casket down on a piece of cement and turned back into his regular form. "Don't touch this," he said, "you'll freeze your hands off." He walked away from it still sitting on the ground. "That won't hold him forever. We have to find those stones! Quickly!"

"You're not going to tell us what that is or why you have it?" Tony said in shock as he stared at the frozen battlefield.

"Tony!" Bruce said, "The stones! Now! Focus on what's happening in the present! We can discuss the past later."

They moved through the rubble quickly. Loki lifted the beams and concrete into the air with his power as Bruce threw countless rocks to the side. Scott got large and moved even more pieces as Mantis, Natasha, Sam, Tony, and Bucky searched under pieces of broken building.

Sam bent over and between some pieces of rubble he found his wings and the shield. "I found my wings!" he said happily, "I'll just look down and fight these aliens from above."

"Your leg is broken," Bucky said, "How are you going to land later?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he answered as he put on the wings. In an instant he was up and flying through the air above them with the shield in his hands.

Nebula appeared behind the rest of them and said, "Found it."

"Don't do this, Nebula," Bucky pleaded, "you don't have to be like your father. You get to choose how you live now. Just because he came back, that doesn't mean you have to go back to the way things were before."

"I don't know you," she said coldly, "don't act like we're friends."

"Stop!" Gamora said as she came up from behind her, "You know what he's saying is right. Don't do this! Thanos going to destroy everything, you know that!"

"She's right," the present day Nebula said as she appeared alongside her, "you don't have to be the way he wants you to be. You know this isn't right."

"What?" Bucky asked.

Tony demanded, "What is going on?" He looked back and forth between the two Nebulas.

Present day Nebula said, "She's evil! Don't listen to her! She's from 2014, back when I was still loyal to my father. She's going to give the stones to him so he can get rid of half of all life all over again."

Tony pointed his Iron Man hand canons at both of them and said, "We have to figure this out now before Thanos breaks out of that ice gets his ass over here."

2014 Nebula said, "Don't do anything for her! She's weak!"

"I'm you!" Present day Nebula said.

The 2014 Nebula raised at gun at her future self, but the present day Nebula took the shot first and killed her by stiking her in the heart. She sadly took the glove from her past self and said, "Let's save the universe."

The ice holding back Thanos cracked and shattered into a million pieces. The rest of his army began breaking through.

Loki asked, "What are we going to do with the stones now?"

"We have to get them back to their universes," Bruce said, "but the time machine was destroyed in the explosion and there's no time to build a new one."

"That wasn't our only time machine!" Scott replied happily as he hit his keyfob and triply sound echoed from the distance.

Natasha said, "It's that ugly van you came here in. I don't see it anywhere."

"I do!" Sam explained, still flying above them, "But it's half frozen and enemies are fast approaching! Guys!" He threw the shield down and took out two of the thousands in the army Thanos had.

Scott hurried in that direction with the glove and the stones.

Bucky said, "I don't have a weapon." He looked around and saw a huge piece of sharpened rebar laying next to his feet. "Close enough," he muttered as he pulled it out of the concrete with ease.

Thanos charged for them first. Loki lunged for the casket once again but by the time he aimed it at Thanos he was too close. He lifted his large double edged sword and as the ice slowly cased the blade, he moved it downward and it broke the casket in two. Loki rolled off to the side as the power faded and he changed back to his regular self.

With one swing, as Natasha and Mantis attacked, he threw them off to the side as if they weighed nothing. Tony fired at him from the air alongside Sam but he dodged every attack. Ice cracked in the distance as more of his army broke free.

Gamora attacked alongside Bucky, but they too were rebuffed. The rebar in Bucky held bent in the middle around Thanos' arm while Gamora rolled off to the side. Nebula jumped up and threw herself at her father. Her legs landed around his neck and he took a string out of her pocket and leaned backwards toward the ground to try and strangle him with it. Natasha leaped up and pulled down with her.

Thanos jumped up and threw his weight backwards, hoping to crush them both. Instead they rolled in opposite directions. Natasha threw a taser circle at him. He screamed in pain as both her and Nebula were back on their feet. In an instant, Thanos threw it off of him and tried to go after them. Nebula used a long taser rod to hold him back, causing him more pain before he kicked her down.

He demanded, "Who taught you to fight like that?"

"An ex-assassin that doesn't know how to lose!" she answered angrily.

Bucky bent over and threw the concrete and every other debri he could at Thanos. Nothing seemed to faze him but he did turn around to focus on Bucky. Eventually Bucky fell backwards into a hole with the rebar still in his hand. He held it over himself as Thanos advanced.

Loki used his telekinesis and tried to stop Thano's blade through sheer force of will. Thanos turned toward him only to get pumbled in the head by Tony's attack from the air. He blocked it and threw concrete at him, then turned back to Bucky who was struggling over the mound of rubble.

Just as Thanos caught up to him, he was blasted up the whole front of his body with blue blasts. Bucky looked over his shoulder to left and saw a huge magical portal wide open with a Wakandan fighter ship flying through the air. It maneuvered over to him and continued to blast Thanos.

"Shuri?" Bucky asked.

"Wakanda Forever!" she announced from the the loudspeaker of her ship, "Leave my big brother alone!" She continuously fired shots at Thanos, knocking him down and away from Bucky.

Meanwhile more portals opened behind him and hundreds upon thousands of people who were snapped away reappeared. Tony commanded from the air, "Avengers Assemble!" Everyone and anyone from across the galaxy charged forward through the portals toward the army that was now completely free from the ice.

"Thor!" Loki shouted, trying to get his attention, "You're back!"

"I took a page from your book, brother," Thor replied as he ran up and hugged him, "and came back from the dead."

"You're not the only one," Loki said happily.

Thor said as he raised his axe, "This time it's off with Thanos' head!" Loki took one of his daggars and swiftly stabbed Thor in the stomach with it. He yelped in pain and shouted, "Loki!"

"That's for dying without my permission!" Loki yelled as he pulled the dagger out of him.

Meanwhile, Wanda cut off Thanos' path and said angrily, "You took everything from me."

"I don't even know who you are," he said hastily.

"You will," she replied, and began tearing him apart, piece by piece, agonizingly tearing him apart with her powers, not letting him get a move in edgewise.

Instead of dealing with the pain, Thanos commanded, "Rain fire!"

"But sir, the troops," a voice called out.

"Do it now!" Thanos shouted.

Within moments, the canons from the ship charged up and were aimed at the battlefield below. Bucky looked up in horror and said, "We have to take out that ship! Sam, you're in the air!"

"I'm going to need help!" he answered, "I only have two guns. Scott, you can reach it when you get big."

"A little busy over here!" he said, "The car is dead. I'm trying to hotwire it together so it'll run!"

"Tony?" Sam asked.

"I'm trying to keep the massive army away from Scott," Tony answered as he continuously fired blasts at the army that was fast approaching Scott on the ground.

The fire rained down on everyone, causing them to take cover and flee for their lives. Wanda was knocked out while Tony had to maneuver around the blasts in midair. Loki commanded, "Thor! The ship! Take it out!"

"On it!" Thor said as he spun his large axe. It took him off of the ground far above the ship. As he made his way downward, lightning came from the sky in every direction and split apart the ship as it continuously fired blasts. Thor brought more lightning as he made it to the ground and it sent the largest ripple effect throughout Thanos' army, killing hundreds at once.

The damage from the canons was done. "The car!" Scott shouted, "It's ruined."

Bruce said as he fought, "We have to come up with a new plan and the sooner the better! Anyone have any ideas?"

"Think one up for us," Tony demanded, "you're a genius, aren't you? We'll keep these guys at bay." He blasted several more from the air and then turned to Thanos once again.

Seeing his chance, Bucky saw an opening and threw the rebar at Thanos. Instead of moving straight through the air like a spear, thanks to it's new bent design it spun in the air _around_ Thanos spectacularly.

"Seriously," Bucky whispered under his breath.

"Interesting," Thanos admitted, "too bad you missed." He raised his weapon over his head and ran toward Bucky.

Before Bucky could react, he saw the rebar spinning back toward Thanos. His relief was short lived when it bounced off of Thanos' back without making so much as a dent, and launched itself directly into Tony's chest above his arc reactor core, piercing his Ironman suit.

Bucky gasped in horror as he watched him fall from the sky but Thanos didn't stop. Instead Thor's axe moved around and cut through Thanos' side when he wasn't looking.

When Tony hit the ground, Bucky sprinted over to him as fast as his legs could carry him. "Tony," he said as he kneeled beside him, "I'm so sorry." He ripped off his face mask and saw a panicked Tony struggling to breathe.

A portal suddenly opened up beside them and Doctor Strange ran through. Bucky stared in shock in awe, and then shook it off, not even bothering to ask who he was or what was happening.

"I'm Doctor Stephen Strange," he said to Bucky, "I need to see his chest." Bucky tore off the chest plate and saw the blood stain growing through his clothes. "His airway is blocked. He can't breathe." With his magic, he carefully pulled out the rebar and kept the wound open, trying to stop the blood.

"Keep breathing," Bucky begged, "Tony, please."

"He's bleeding into his lungs," Doctor Strange explained, "if I can't stop it now he won't make it."

Bucky turned around and looked for Shuri's ship in the battlefield, knowing she'd know what to do. He found her ship getting shot out of the sky and falling to the ground below. "Shuri!" he said.

"I'm fine," she replied through the com in her ear, "I'm at my lab, uninjured."

"I need something to stop the bleeding in someone," he said desperately, "or else Tony will die."

"I'm not there," she said, "I can't help from here and I can't get where you are now. I'm sorry, I can't help."

"T'Challa!" Bucky shouted.

"I don't have anything on me at the moment," he said as he continued to fight, "I know it seems like a huge oversight, but I didn't have time to grab anything before the battle started. I'm sorry."

Doctor Strange said calmly, "I'll try to stop your bleeding Tony but I don't have an operating table or any O- here."

As Tony choked on his last breaths, he reached up and grabbed Bucky by his hair and pulled his ear close to his mouth. "Keep trying...to do good...for Steve..." He coughed and hacked violently as he released him.

Bucky shook his head and blinked back tears.

Tony nodded as blood filled his lungs.

"You can't do anything else?" Bucky begged Doctor Strange.

"If I had the time stone I could turn back time on his injuries," he explained, "but it's all the way on the otherside of the field and no one can bring the dead back to life. It's over for him. I'm sorry."

Tony motioned for Bucky to go fight as he hacked and coughed away.

Bucky stood up, shaking, and walked towards Thanos who was still in combat with Loki and Thor together. As Thanos fought, a blast hit him in the chest, not even making a scratch. He turned and saw Gamora standing to the side with a blaster in her hand.

"Oh!" Peter Quill sang several feed behind her, "Shot through the heart, but you're too vain!" Gamora turned and glared at him. "I'm sorry," he said, "I just rememebered that song. I need to make a new mixtape now that I'm back on Earth."

"We need to do another snap," Bruce said, "that's the only way but I can't do it again. I don't think I'll make it long enough to do it."

Natasha asked as she fought off some unfrozen Thanos' army, "Who else can do it? It would kill the rest of us."

"Maybe I could," Thor said.

"I think it's best if someone with mechanical body parts did it," Bruce explained as he continued to fight.

Rhodey said, "I'll do it."

"No," Bruce said, "Rhodey, you're only an outer metal shell. These stones will ripe you apart and burn you up from the inside out."

"I have a metal arm," Nebula said confidently as she stood 100 feet away from Bucky, "I can do the snap. I'll wish for my father and his army to be dead." She looked over at him and nodded.

Bruce said, "Now we just have to get the stones over to you."

"On it," Scott replied.

Through the battlefield, he grew larger and held the glove in his hand. He ran over but tripped and had to shrink back down to regular size in the middle of the enemy forces. Peter Parker took the glove and moved over the battlefield with the help of Sam and Rhodey. He dropped it in front of Thanos by accident.

"No!" Loki shouted as he threw his dagger at Thanos' right arm and pierced his skin.

Thanos yelped in pain, grabbed Loki by the throat, and threw him into Thor.

Bucky dove for the glove and landed right under Thanos' feet. As he stood up, clutching the glove with everything he had, Thanos easily ripped it from his hands and kicked him hard, directly into Nebula, knocking her down.

Thanos declared, "I am inevitable." He snapped his fingers.

Everything flashed to white.


	10. Relief

Bucky took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and saw a beautiful pink, purple, and red landscape in what looked like the most reflective water he had ever seen. Across from him stood Steve, standing at 5 foot 4 and weighing 94 pounds.

Bucky looked down at himself and realized he was in his old blue and black garb and had the short hair that he wore while helping Steve in World War II and had his natural left arm again.

"What'd you do?" Steve asked, smiling.

"Saved the world," Bucky replied, "the whole universe. I took the stones from Thanos' gauntlet and I divided the power with Nebula and together we snapped him out of existence and we won. Why do you look like that?"

Steve said, "We look like however we perceive ourselves to look like here. Why, what do I look like to you?"

"Young," Bucky said, "and little. What about me?"

Steve replied, "You look happy. Enjoy it now that everything's is back to normal in the universe."

Bucky smiled at him and said, "I will."

* * *

Nebula looked around herself and saw the same amazing pink, purple, and red landscape with reflective water. Across from her, Gamora stood in her adult form.

"We did it," Nebula said as tears welled up in her eyes, "We saved the day. We saved the universe! I did something right, I won against our father like I have always wanted to do, deep down."

Gamora replied, "I'm proud to call you my sister."

"I'm glad," Nebula said, smiling at her.

"You're free from our father forever now," Gamora said, "how does it feel?"

"Perfect," Nebula confessed, "I can finally be me."

* * *

Back on the battlefield, Thanos looked around him to see the dust settle once again. He turned to face Bucky and Nebula again and saw they were laying on the backs on the ground, their left arms missing and their necks scarred from the burns of doing the snap.

"Why?" he demanded as he only saw his men and children disappearing before his eyes, "That's impossible!" He looked at the glove and saw that the stones were gone.

He looked over and saw the stones by their hands on the ground and dove for them. His legs disappeared first, and before he landed on top of both of them, they didn't bother to move out of the way, he turned to ashes above them and moved through the wind.

Natasha looked over at Bucky and Nebula from her place in the battlefield as the enemies were now gone. "No," she whispered desperately as she saw them laying on the ground, motionless, "please, no..." She ran over to their sides and sat beside them. "You can't die!" she pleaded.

"Ah," Bucky wimpered, "I'm not dead. Oh God." He squeezed his eyes shut from the pain coarsing through his body.

"Let's not do that again," Nebula complained as she tried to roll onto her right side away from her now missing arm.

Natasha breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Oh thank God. You know, it was bold of you two not to move when Thanos jumped on top of you guys." She extended her arms to help them to their feet.

Bucky took a deep breath and confessed, "It wasn't bold, I can't get up."

After Natasha helped him struggle to his feet, Sam shouted from above them, "Hey Bucky! You remember when you mentioned landing like this with a broken leg? Well we're crossing that bridge right now!" He started flying lower and as slow as he could.

Thor walked over to them and asked, "What's wrong with him?"

"Look out below!" Sam shouted as he flew straight for Bucky.

He raised his right arm to help stop the impact but they both slammed into the ground. "Oh God," Sam said, rithing in pain, "That hurts like a bitch! Damn."

"You had to choose me to crash into?" Bucky asked, still reeling from doing the snap.

"I was aiming for Thor," he confessed, groaning in pain.

Bucky struggled back to his feet and glanced over at Doctor Strange, who was now standing upright beside Tony. His body was still on the ground, not moving. Pepper and Peter ran over in desperation and kneeled beside him. "He's gone," Doctor Strange said sadly, "he saw Thanos disappear right before he passed, and he was glad."

Everyone turned to look at Tony's now lifeless body with sadness and horror.

Doctor Strange continued, "He said that the arc reactor core in his chest was heavily damaged when the building exploded and fell into pieces on top of you guys. Even if the rebar hadn't pierced his chest he was a goner, but he fought against Thanos' forces anyway."

"He was dying the entire fight?" Natasha asked, "And he still kept going?"

"Yes," he said.

"Where's Steve?" T'Challa asked as he walked over and his mask disappeared. Bucky's face fell.

"Yeah," Thor said, trying to remain optimistic, "where is Captain America? We should celebrate our victory together with him, it's what Ironman would have wanted. We'll let him know that noble sacrifice wasn't in vain."

Bucky's voice cracked as he said, "Steve's dead."

* * *

Shuri analyzed Loki as he held the power stone back in Wakanda in her lab long after the battle was over, around Bruce, Thor, and T'Challa.

"I don't get it," Bruce said, "no one else can touch that thing bare handed but he can for some reason."

T'Challa asked, "Are you sure this is the stone that incinerates all life that touches it?" He reached out and was immediately burned by the power stone's energy. He shook his hand wildly in the air and added, "Nevermind, forget what I just asked."

Thor said, "Of course we can touch it without getting hurt, we're Gods." He tried to take it from Loki's hand but it burned him too. "Ah, okay, guess not."

Shuri asked, "Did you know your body temperature is extremely low? You should be beyond hypothermic and near death if I'm being honest."

"I'm well aware," Loki answered, "it's part of being a frost giant."

"That's what seems to be causing this nonreaction," she explained, "your body temperature is so low the stone doesn't register itself as being held or touched by an organic lifeform, therefore it doesn't react to you. It can't."

Bruce asked, "So does that mean he can't use the stone for himself?" He glanced over at him.

"Loki," Thor said, "Try to use the power stone against me." He held his arms up to brace himself.

Bruce said, "Thor, he's not going to-Loki!" He scolded him as he watched and tried to reach out to him but it was too late.

Loki touched it to Thor and he was mildly burned, but still, nothing happened to Loki himself and it was clear the powers of the power stone remained neutral. Shuri said, "It didn't do anything to him."

"Nothing happened," Loki said.

Bruce said, "Good thing we didn't have you do the snap, or else nothing would have happened...probably." He looked at them weakly and Loki and Thor smiled nervously at him and then at each other.

* * *

Two weeks later, Bucky sat with his back to Steve's headstone away from the freshly manicured lawn of the newly dug grave.

"Shuri gave me a new vibrainium arm," he explained, "again. She was half amused by that and said 'What are you now, broken white boy number 4 and number 1? I already fixed you once!' Some guy, Everet Ross, was the 2nd one, and she counts that red robot thing with the mind stone as number 3."

He took a deep breath to brace himself as he continued.

"The burn scars I got from the infinity stones are fading," he said as he reached up to touch the now faded black burn scars around the left side of his neck, "I wondered if they ever would. I guess you know this by now, but Tony didn't make it through the fight with Thanos. I thought he hated me but in the end, he told me to do the right thing from now on with his last breaths. On a lighter note, Sam has to be on crutches for the next two or three months and he's not happy about it."

He smiled to himself, then struggled to hold back more tears.

"Steve," he continued, "I made sure you were buried next to your mom and dad. They made this honorary empty grave after you 'died' in 1945, since that was in your will, when they couldn't find your body back then. I think it's nice that you're with them now. Tony's with his parents too. The whole world is still reeling over both of you. Oh yeah, I gave Sam your shield. I think he'll be better at it than me. I'm still so lost at trying to remember who I am, I can't take up something new like that but he can. He's a good man. I can see why you're friends with him."

He glanced over to the left and saw more people coming over to put down more flowers.

Bucky said, "I promise I'll come back soon, Steve." He stood up and looked at the grave memorial with hundreds upon hundreds of flowers, candles, and gifts that seemingly covered half of the cemetery. Then he glanced over at Sam leaning against a large tree off to the side, several hundred feet away, with his crutches in his hands. Natasha came up behind him with her own flowers in her hands and stopped to talk to Sam out of hearshot from him.

Sam whispered, his back turned to Bucky so he couldn't see, "Did Tony's chest light thingy really fail after the building fell on us? He seemed fine to me."

"I asked Doctor Strange about that after everything started to settle," she confessed, making sure to turn away from Bucky as he walked over so he couldn't get a chance to hear her, "And he told me Tony wanted Bucky to hear that so he wouldn't have to live with the guilt of killing yet another Stark." She shook her head. "He lied. His arc reactor core was fine."

Bucky struggled to walk through the flowers covering the ground towards them. Sam said as turned to him and said, "Steve would be proud of everything you've done for everyone. We should celebrate his life together, have a drink."

"I can't get drunk," Bucky replied, "it's side-effect of the super soldier serum in my DNA."

"I was wondering about that," he said, "now that I have the shield, I should get super soldier serum somehow too, right, in order to become the best Captain America ever of course. You think the Hulk or Shuri could make some up for me?"

Bucky explained, "They have some in Wakanda. That's how the Black Panther exists. Some guy tried to burn down all of the plants that produce it a few years ago but the roots survived. I'm sure they'd let you have some if you asked."

"Is that because I'm black?" Sam asked jokingly, "You think they'd help a brother out with that?"

Bucky gave him a blank look and answered, "No. They'd let you because you know _me_, and Steve."

"That makes more sense actually," he said, "I can see that. Yeah."

Natasha said, "Don't let me interrupt you guys." She quickly wiped away tear, hoping they didn't see.

"Actually," Sam said, "I don't mean to bounce on you or anything but I really need to sit down." He turned to hobble away on his crutches.

Natasha nodded and said, "Go ahead."

"I'll catch up," Bucky replied.

As he hobbled away slowly, Natasha asked, "Did Steve ever tell you about everything I've been through?"

Bucky shook his head and said, "No, whenever we saw each other he'd try to help me by remincing on old times from back in the day. It helped me remember things but we didn't talk much about who everyone else is, or why these things were happening."

"Wow," she said, "so that final battle must have been seriously confusing for you."

"That's the understatement of the century," he said.

She explained, "I was born in Russia, and given away as a baby to an orphanage ballet school that was a front for the Black Widow school for girls. I worked with the KGB when I was little and even as I got older and the Soviet Union collapsed, I was a Russian spy for quite some time. I was trained to seduce and kill and was sterilized to prove my allegiance. I killed countless people, most of them were innocent or at least didn't deserve to die the way they did. When I was taken out of that life I never thought I could live a normal one."

"I'm sorry all of that happened to you," he said sincerely.

"I mentioned what I've done," she said, "to let you know that you've been given a chance to live a normal life. You should take it."

"Thank you for the advice," he said in a monotone voice.

"I also came by because I knew you'd be here," she said, "Bruce has the time machine ready for tomorrow. After you return the stones, do you think you'll go back to the 1940s and live out a normal peaceful life?"

He answered, "No."

Surprised, she said, "Really?"

"It's easy," he explained, "to look back and see everything as positive and good but it wasn't. My first memory is of my mom literally jumping up and down for joy and picking me up and dancing around in front of the radio in our living room. I didn't understand why she was doing that but I was happy because she was. Years later when I asked her about what happened, she said she was so excited because they announced on the radio that for the first time ever women were legally allowed to vote."

Bucky glanced at Natasha, who was giving him a heartwarming smile.

He continued, "Growing up I remember hearing about people getting lynched for things about themselves they couldn't control, like the color of their skin or their sexuality. When people got sick, they were more likely to die than to live. There was so much we didn't know about space, the human body, technology, basically everything everyone takes advantage of today. I can't go back to that way of life even knowing that in the future everything will be different."

Natasha nodded and said, "I'm glad you're staying here, in the future, with us. It'll be a good life. You'll see." She walked toward the grave with her flowers.

"With time," Bucky replied as he walked away in the opposite direction toward Sam who was waiting at the car.


	11. Returning the Stones

Each person came up to Bucky individually to tell him about each stone and when and where to put it back in time. He stood close to the time machine Bruce was building, waiting for each person to show up with the stone.

* * *

The space stone:

Scott explained to Bucky, "We took this from the lobby of Stark Tower in New York City, 2012. You can't miss the building, it says STARK across the top...or it did at one point. Anyway, we gave Tony a heart attack so by the time you get there he should still be on the ground convulsing."

"Oh," Bucky said nervously.

"It's fine," he replied, "I mean, Tony's fine. Thor can fix him. So the tesseract, the blue cube thing, is in this briefcase, that's the space stone. You should just be able to kick it across the floor from a distance back towards Thor, Tony, and Loki without being seen, no problem."

Bucky asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Scott said.

* * *

The power stone:

Nebula held the sphere up for him and explained, "This is the power stone. Careful, if you actually touch the stone itself it'll incinerate you."

"Got it," Bucky replied as he took it from her.

"It's from Morag," she continued, "a planet in space. It's in the temple of the infinity stone, totally deserted. I left that Peter Quill guy knocked out not too far from the entrance. You can't miss it."

Bucky said, "Sounds easy enough."

She added, "The barrier it's being held in melts metal like it's plastic, so watch out."

"Understood," he said, lifting his new arm up to show her. The fist bumped their new vibrainium arms together. He added, "You knew the soul stone required a sacrifice...but you didn't say anything."

She shook her head, "You're wrong, I didn't know. I only knew my father killed my sister. I figured after he got what he wanted he killed her because she outlived her usefulness to him. I'm sorry. If I had known-"

"Someone else would have died instead of Steve," Bucky said quickly, "I think he would have preferred for it to end this way."

"I'm glad you didn't die," Nebula said, and smiled at him.

* * *

The time stone:

Bruce explained as he handed the stone to Bucky, "I took the time stone from the top floor of a building in New York City. I got the address here." He handed him a piece of paper.

"Anything else I should know?" Bucky asked.

"Doctor Strange isn't the one holding the stone in 2012," he continued, "some bald woman is. I didn't get her name. She knows you're coming back to give it to her...or that someone is coming, anyway."

Bucky nodded, confused, but smiled anyway.

* * *

The mind stone:

Natasha gave Bucky the staff and explained, "This is the mind stone. I took it from Hydra in the elevator in the Stark tower in 2012 New York City but don't worry, you don't have to go anywhere near them. As I was walking away, Steve stopped me so I had to take him out. We started on the 14th floor balcony, but ended up on the 5th by the time the fight was over. He should still be out cold, you can just place it next to his unconscious body."

Bucky smiled and said, "That's nice."

"Are going to tell him about you?" she asked.

"If the soul stone doesn't get him back," he replied, "then yeah, I will. Even though he didn't know about me in 2012, I was still suffering under Hydra back then. Someone should know and do something about it."

Natasha said, "I think I'm supposed to dissuade you from doing that. I'm supposed to explain that you'll ruin that timeline's universe a bit if you mix it up at all, even over something so seemingly small. That would be the right thing for me to do in this situation, I think." She closed her eyes and made her lips disappear, trying to hold herself back.

Bucky asked, "What do you want to tell me?"

"This is the mind stone," she explained, "which I already told you but what you don't know is that it can manipulate someone's thoughts and feelings. If you do it right, you should be able to make him have a vision of whatever you want."

"How do I do that?" he asked.

She confessed, "I don't know, but Loki does."

* * *

The reality "stone":

"Of course you can put a vision into someone's head with this," Loki explained as he pointed to his old staff, "it's made to control someone's mind."

Bucky said, "I don't want to control anyone. I only want to put my memories into their head."

He explained, "You can contrentrate on what you want them to hear and see, then you place the tip on their chest and they'll see, hear, and feel whatever you want them to and it's impossible to resist. It's simple, anyone could do it."

"Thank you," Bucky said as he looked down at the staff, knowing exactly the right memories he wanted to use.

Loki handed Bucky the suringe and explained, "This is the reality stone in liquid form. When I went to Asgard my mother saw through my disguise. She'll inject Jane with this again so everything can go exactly the same way it did in 2013."

"Will she be freaked out about this?" Bucky asked.

"No she was raised by witches so she knows you're coming," he replied, "expect her to be like Thor when you arrive." He looked over at Thor teaching Groot how to do a handshake.

* * *

As Bruce readied the time machine in the forest, Sam talked to Bucky off to the side.

"Are you going to stay back there in 1940 whatever?" Sam asked.

"No," he answered, "but I have a note to hand out. It's to my parents, for after I 'die' back then. I'm sure they were devastated." He kept it folded up perfectly in his hand.

"You can keep that to yourself," Sam said.

"Thanks," Bucky replied.

As Bucky stood on the time machine, Bruce asked, "You remember which ones are which and when they're going back?"

"Yes," he said as he looked down at the brief case and staff in his hands, "the power stone is in the sphere, the reality liquid is in the neetle, the soul stone is red, the cube thing is the space stone, the green one is the time stone, and the mind stone is in this staff. I remember."

Sam asked, "How long will this take?"

Bruce replied, "For him? As long as he needs. For us it'll be about 5 seconds. Ready?"

Bucky nodded as Bruce fired up the machine.

* * *

First, he showed up in front of Frigga on Asgard in 2013. Startled, she stepped back when Bucky suddenly appeared.

"Loki said it would only be a moment," she said, "did everything go well?"

"Yes," Bucky replied unconvincingly as he handed her the reality liquid, "we won." He smiled at her as best as he could, not wanting to burdan her with everything that happened. "I have to go."

"Good luck returning the rest of them," she said, waving at him as he disappeared to the next timeline.

* * *

Bucky appeared in front of the temple of the power stone where Peter Quill's unconcious body laid in front of him. He nudged him carefully with his foot, hoping he wasn't dead, and Peter groaned, still knocked out.

He moved on toward the temple. The doors were still wide open. The shield protecting it's center was up. Bucky poked at it with his metal arm and sparks flew.

He carefully grabbed the sphere and pushed it through the shield. The heat on his arm grew but because of the vibrainium it merely turned red from the head rather than begin to melt or incinerate through the barrier. When he took his arm out the sphere bounced to the center and floated to the place it was before. He quickly moved on to the next stone.

* * *

On top of the mountain of Vormier, Bucky appeared next to Red Skull.

"Welcome back," Red Skull said in his usual tone of voice, "the idea that you can bring him back by returning the soul stone is a fatal one. All sacrifices are final."

Bucky took the soul stone out of the briefcase as he glared at Red Skull. "Why?" he asked, "I brought the soul stone back, a soul for a soul, like you said before."

"No one can come back from the dead," Red Skull replied.

Bucky took the stone and chucked it as hard as he could over the cliff. He waited. He wanted Steve to come back and ask what took him so long or where he had been or if they won against Thanos, but nothing happened, just as Red Skull said it wouldn't.

"Dont!" Bucky demanded, "Say anything to me." He teleported away.

* * *

On the Ancient One's roof, he came face to face with the Ancient One herself.

"Thank you," she said as she took the time stone from him, "I trust everything went well."

"We won," Bucky replied.

"Why do you look so disappointed?" she asked.

"Because people died," he answered. He teleported out of there to across town inside of Stark Tower to avoid the rest of that coversation.

He looked at the stairwell entrance that said he was on the 5th floor, just as Natasha told him where they had ended up. He looked down the hallway under the stories of glass windows and countless other glass hallways and staircases above him. Directly in front of him was broken glass, and Steve's unconcious body laying on the ground.

Bucky walked up to him with the staff in his hand and placed it in the center of his chest. He felt the engery move through the staff as he remembered his past.

_He fell from the train, screaming the whole way down. He landed in the icy cold river in the mountain range and was found by Hydra agents later. Dr. Zola showed up and told him he was ready to be prepped. The next thing he knew he was waking up on an operating table, being told he was the new fist of hydra. He tried to strangle the doctor with his new metal left arm, only to get knocked out again._

_He was awaken with electrocution. Bucky fast forwarded through decades of training, pain, enhancements, beatings, murders, and flashed forward to Alexander Pierce sitting in front of him and telling him his different missions over the years. He made sure Rumlow and the other Hydra agents were shown and to show the exact location in Siberia he was in 2012. He made sure to piece together exactly how Steve could enter the building and where he'd find him._

When Bucky took the staff off of Steve, he left it at his side and ran away in time to hear Steve jump up and shout in horror, "Bucky!" He caught his breath and looked around, but Bucky was already hidden behind a wall. "Oh my God..." Steve whispered to himself and grabbed the staff.

Hoping for the best for Steve, Bucky made his way downstairs to the lobby in order to deliver the last stone. When he came out of the stairway, he saw what was described to him. Tony was on the ground, with Thor panicking over him and Loki standing off to the side. He froze when his eyes moved onto Alexander Pierce, who was also standing over Tony.

Panicking, he dropped the briefcase and had to actively keep himself from hyperventilating. He didn't notice it had popped every-so-slightly open. After he took a moment to pull himself back together, he kicked the briefcase across the floor and it bounced off of Thor's foot and burst open.

The tesseract flew out and landed at Loki's feet. He nonchalantly picked it up and disappeared into blue and grey smoke.

Bucky gasped in fear. No one mentioned to him that would happen. He knew he had to leave before anyone noticed him so he quickly went back into the stairwell and teleported away.

* * *

He stopped by his old house in Brooklyn, New York in 1941, the morning his parents met him on the ride to the airport. He stayed in the alleyway as he watched his parents and then his younger self walk out the front door and locked it behind themselves before walking to the car.

Once they were gone, Bucky left the alley and entered the house by easily picking the lock. He snuck into his childhood bedroom and left the note in a drawr right on top. He closed it carefully and went to the future indefinetly.

* * *

When Bucky came back to the present, he was still in shock.

"Did everything go as planned?" Sam asked nervously, "You don't look too good."

Bucky explained nervously, "When I returned the cube thing Loki grabbed it and then turned into smoke and vanished."

Bruce asked, "I'm sorry, what? He did what?"

"Was that supposed to happen?" Bucky asked carefully, "Did that happen before?"

"No," Bruce explained, "that did not happen before. When all of that went down, Thor took the tesseract and Loki back to Asgard after we had lunch together in the city. What do you mean he vanished?"

Sam asked, "Is this bad?"

"Well according to what he just told us there's now a 2012 evil Loki wandering around in that timeline somewhere," Bruce said, "but it's not in this timeline so I don't think it effects us."

Bucky asked, "So everything went okay?"

"Yeah it sounds good to me," Sam replied.

Bruce said nervously, "I still don't think it's okay. Why did you let that happen? What went wrong?"

"I got distracted," Bucky confessed as he came off of the time machine.

Sam asked jokingly, "By what, Steve's ass in that uniform?"

"No," Bucky answered seriously, "I was distracted by Alexander Pierce, the man that happened to torture and abuse me for decades was standing over Tony as he convulsed on the ground."

Bruce replied, "I don't remember seeing him being there."

"You weren't there," Bucky said, "you were outside rampaging and scaring everyone." Bruce put his head in his hands out of embarrassment.

Sam said, "I'd say we're all good then. We're fine here. Our job is done."

"You didn't do anything," Bucky snarked.

"You take that back right the fuck now!" Sam demanded, smiling at him. Bucky smiled back and they both ended up laughing.


	12. Credit Scenes

Mid Credits

Bucky walked up to Tony's and his parent's graves, dressed in his 1940's military uniform with white gloves on to hide his metal arm, with three bouquets of flowers in his hands. He stopped at Tony's grave that was absolutely covered in flowers, gifts, ribbons, and everything else people could leave behind to honor his life and death.

Bucky placed a bouquet on top of Tony's headstone and said, "You lived a nobel life and had a nobel end. I'm sorry it had to be over so soon, especially since your wife just announced that she's pregnant. I'm sorry they'll never know their father, Tony, I am."

He moved over to Maria Stark's grave that was much less covered and had overflow of flowers and gifts. He placed the bouquet on her headstone and said, "You deserved a longer life. I'm sorry." He remembered hearing her calling for Howard's name as he walked over to her side of the car that faithful night and strangled her to death.

He moved to Howard Stark's grave and smiled weakly. He placed the flowers on his headstone and said, "Thank you...for everything. I'm sorry I cut your life short. I hope you enjoying fondue in the afterlife."

He walked away, taking one last look at the graves for good measure before leaving.

* * *

End Credits

A black POW flag was raised directly under the American one in front of the suburban house Bucky parked on the street of. He glanced up and smiled at it before walking to the front door and knocking loudly on it with his right hand.

An older woman's voice said, "Just a minute!"

When she opened the door, she was completely shocked to see Bucky Barnes, in his original uniform wearing white gloves, standing before her. She inhaled sharpy, shakily, and asked, "Are you-is this a dream? Bucky? Are you really here standing on my doorstep?"

He smiled at her with tears in his eyes and asked, "Elenora?"

"It's you," she said happily, "oh my God! You're alive and you're still young just like Steve!" She reached out and hugged him on the front step.

"That's right," he replied, "I was in the ice for 70 years just like him."

She pulled him inside and said, "We have so much to talk about! Come in! Come in!" She quickly closed the door right after he was inside and the screen faded to black.


End file.
